The Lonely City
by Texcatlipoka
Summary: When the four kingdoms were young, the first settlers in a hidden valley discovered a rare mineral ore, as red as dragon-fire. Earth benders dug the tunnels, and Fire benders melted the ore. Then Sozin's Comet changed everything. UPDATE: Something has been unleashed. The Gaang must find the culprit behind the burning homes before the Earth Settlers are banished forever.
1. The Stone Hut

**I have this storyline finished and I'm already many chapters in, so expect regular updates.  
This story is set directly after the events of Ep 44 of Avatar; Sokka's Master. **

**All feedback much appreciated!**

Twilight.

Aang, Sokka and Katara were looking over the lip of the valley, towards the city. On the downward slope, a few buildings clung to the road that wound  
its way down to the city wall. Compared with the regular, neat rows of high dwellings within the city (for they were high enough on the valley to see over the wall),  
these sad hovels seemed especially desolate, like victims of banishment.

Nearest them, in an enclosed stone wall set back from the path, were a barn, a shed, and a stone cottage with a creaking watermill on its side.

The group of four proceeded cautiously over the lip of the valley, standing a safe distance from the stone compound. Aang looked it over and tilted his head curiously.

"Looks safe enough."

Sokka hung back. "How do we know? This is the Fire Nation we're in now. I say we should assume whoever lives there is an enemy."

Katara gestured at the huts. "Does it look like people live here?"

They cast their eyes again over the stone hut, with its slowly creaking watermill, the crooked barn, and the beaten up shed; then again over the prosperous town  
below - its high perimeter wall had crept up every side of the valley, defying the steepness as the city grew. Even in the twilight, its red roofs glimmered. Close to  
the city's heart, two pagoda spires, not wooden but stone, towered over the surrounding buildings, their blue spires upturned as though reaching for the moon.  
Next to this boast of prosperity, it was hard to believe anyone would choose to live in such a lonely stone hut, on the bare hill side.

"Feel anything, Toph?" Aang asked.

"Nope, nothing moving around. It's so… still" said Toph quietly. It was dark and silent, except for the slosh and creak of the turning watermill; everyone was hushed instinctively.

A savagely chill breeze suddenly whipped down the valley from behind them. The group grabbed their thin coats closer; Momo jumped under Aang's shirt. The wind was so strong it was like someone holding.

"Let's go look!" said Sokka, wrapping his arms around him. "We're just as exposed out here anyway. Exposed to the cold too!"

"Too breezy out here, Captain meteor-man?" laughed Toph, though she was secretly as cold as the rest of them.

"You're welcome to stay out here!" Sokka snapped back, suddenly in the lead again.

They all approached the main stone hut's small door. Aang gestured to Appa to hide behind the barn, out of sight of the house. Appa backed himself behind it  
and waited, peeping out at them ridiculously as they knocked, his shaggy body barely hidden by the barn, his huge head not at all.

"Hello?" Called out Sokka. No answer. After ten seconds more, still nothing.

"It's abandoned! " Sokka sighed. "No one here."

"Gee, how did you work that out?" said Toph sarcastically.

"Never mind," replied Sokka absently. "we can hide out here, then head into town in the morning. And with a roof over our heads for once!"

Just as Sokka reached gleefully for the handle, the door suddenly swung inwards, leaving him teetering on his toes.

In the doorway stood an extremely old woman; wizened and tough, she was no taller than Toph. Her faced was less wrinkled than coarse, with leathery brown skin.  
She had a shock of straight white hair.

"Who is it?" She asked loudly. Then she looked at Sokka and frowned. "You have to give us elders time to get to the door, young man."

The gang hesitated, Sokka still wobbling on his toes.

"Think we can trust her?" Toph whispered.

"I think we should play it safe" Katara said. "Let's pretend we're lost, ask for directions and get out of here."

But Aang had a big grin on his face. "It's okay guys."

He bowed to the old lady. "Nice to meet you, ma'am. Sorry to disturb you this late, but I hope you can help us out with a bed for the night."

"You're very trusting, young man", said the old woman, also smiling.

"It's okay," said Aang, still reassuring his friends. "You're one of the good guys."

"Is it my charming smile?"

"No, your necklace." Aang pointed to the white lotus tile hanging around her neck. Then he pulled an identical white lotus tile from a small bag at his waist.  
"This was given to us by Pian Dao the sword-master. I'm guessing you guys have something in common."

The woman smiled warmly. "We do indeed - more than you know! Come inside, Avatar, and I'll get some food ready. My name's Sindu. You can call me Grandma!"

That evening the Gaang sat down around the fireplace with steaming bowls of noodle soup, while Sindu settled on to a stool by the fire. She looked still and sage-like  
as the Gaang told her about their recent visit to Pian Dao. Her soft, lively eyes sometimes swayed shut. She could almost have fallen asleep, but whenever it seemed  
like she wasn't listening, she would interrupt to correct their story, as though she were reading the story out of their minds. When Sokka said that he had introduced himself as Li, she raised a brow.

"Li? You look nothing like a Li, young man." Sokka slapped his hand to his forehead.

She proceeded to tell her own side of the story, of how Pian Dao had contacted her as soon as he'd met Sokka and told her to prepare for the Avatar's arrival.

"So you guys know each other? What's that got to do with the Pai Sho tiles?" asked Toph.

Sindu smiled warmly. "I'm afraid can't give that secret away! When the time comes, you'll find out. For now, all I can say is that our Order stretches across all the Kingdom,  
an order of peace and security. Pian Dao and I are members, as is the man he wants you to meet. A hero of our city. His name is Kyuk Jun."

"Kyuk Jun," repeated Aang softly. "Why did Pian Dao want us to meet him?"

"I don't know, but I can hazard a guess. He's a wise man, is Kyuk, and an old friend of mine. He's one of the most Senior Members of our Order. Besides Pian Dao, the only  
more senior members are… well, I can't give their names away can I!"

Sokka jabbed the air with his chopsticks in mock combat. "So you guys are like a secret society? Like an underground resistance, right? Or are you more like undercover bandits?"

"neither," said Grandma Sindu ""No. We're just like-minded Pai Sho players, Mr Li! And as for Kyuk - he's an advisor to Feng, the Governor of Hongtu!"

The Gaang let out a collective gasp.

"He's a stooge of the Fire Nation?" Cried Toph. "That earthbending phoney!"

"He is our double-agent," Sindu went on. "He has spent years winning the Governor's trust, a powerful man in the Fire Nation and a friend of Lord Ozai himself,  
if a tyrant can be said to have friends. He's our eyes and ears into all the Fire Lord's plans for the war. Their military plans, their customs, their superstitions.  
Who is loyal and who is… a bit fed up! Even," she laughed. "What their generals like to eat and where they like to go on holiday."

She now looked pointedly at Toph. "He is also an Earthbender."

"No way!"

"He can't be!"

Toph exhaled slowly. "That doesn't make sense."

Grandma Sindu paused for a moment, then went on. "He is one of Feng's oldest friends. He protected me for many years. I don't know where we'd be now without him."

It was the deepest moment of night. The stone hut's small fire was the only light for what seemed to be miles away, the cracks in the window shutters peeping out  
into a vacuum of dark. Outside, the wind howled. When Sindu didn't go on, Katara finally asked what was on all of their minds.

"Why live all the way out here, not in the town?" she asked.

"Because my home is here!" Sindu replied with a smile. Suddenly the wind, with a renewed breath, blasted open one of the flimsy shutters over the window by Sindu's stool.  
The unleashed wind raced through the house, wobbling the fire in the hearth and putting a chill in all their bones.

Katara leapt up to close the shutters, but Sindu shook her head, her smile fading. she looked out the open window, which faced east, into the town. She sighed deeply;  
in the silence the howling wind seemed louder than ever.

Finally she spoke up, raising her voice above the wind. "There are other reasons not to live inside Hongtu's walls. It looks peaceful now, but it's a cruel, mysterious place to call a home.  
The war runs deep as a mineral vein here - it's in the city's very foundations."

It was like watching a sinister puppet show. Sindu on her stool, by the window, looked out over the scene of her sad tale. At that moment, as if on a cue,  
a flicker of fire lit up within the city walls. It was so distant that it could have been a spark, or a single hot coal; then suddenly it bloomed into a coat of fire  
that perfectly enveloped a three-storey house. It raged higher and higher until the building was totally enveloped, and a thick column of tar-black smoke was clouding the sky.

Aang leapt up. "We need to go help. Maybe we can put it out!"

Sindu shook her head. "You won't get there in time. Look again. It's already burning down."

Sure enough, the entire building had been engulfed now; it was sinking under the weight of the flames as though being sucked underground; disappearing from the neat rows  
of houses and leaving a ghastly gap, like a pulled tooth.

Sindu turned her face away, heaved a deep sigh, and began.

"The first settlers here discovered a fabulous mineral in the earth, known as Red Agate. Greedy, they built mines here. Earthbenders dug the tunnels,  
and firebenders melted the ore. With the earth they dug, they built homes, which is why there are so many safe stone buildings in this valley. These four  
walls were one of those first huts. Not doing too badly, this old place, for being a few hundred years old, is it?" she laughed, briefly and good-heartedly  
despite her story. "But the real prize was the agate itself, which they used to make jewellery, roof tiles, and dazzling statues. But they dug too deeply and  
hungrily, and disturbed the spirits of this valley. They closed the mines, and built underground burial sites from the old mining tunnels to honour their first ancestors and the  
valley spirits, side by side."

"This was when the Four Kingdoms were young. Later, as the Four Nations established their borders, Hongtu fell under the dominion of the Fire Nation; but  
no one could remember whether it was firebenders or earthbenders who had first inhabited this place. There was bitter, bitter conflict, more fearsome as the  
years passed, until - so it's said - an Earth settler found a way to defeat the forces of the Fire benders. It's been passed down to us that he spoke to Fire and Earth  
and commanded them to destroy the Firebenders, whom they saw as the Intruders. In the Fire Nation story, the original earth Settler betrayed the fire benders,  
defeating them by trickery; and to this day they call us The Betrayers. Regardless, this early victory secured peace and safety for the Earth settlers for many years,  
even once the Fire Nation encompassed all around it. And then came Sozin's Comet."

"After the Fire Nation invasion of the Earth Kingdom, Governor Feng's great grandfather persecuted us. Martial law was imposed, many of us were imprisoned, and any  
attempt to collaborate with the Earth Kingdom was punished. Most of all, earth bending was forbidden, and anyone caught would suffer the harshest punishment of all.  
My own grandmother was one of those caught, and after that, my mother never again dared use her gift."

She paused. Katara had closed the shutter as quietly as possible, blocking out the wind, but a cold chill remained. "I never learned to use my own gift," continued Sindu.  
"It was too dangerous to learn in those days. There are so few of us left now. All that remains are those that learned from Kyuk Kui, Kyuk Jun's grandfather. He taught a  
select few earth benders in secret, using the old mining tunnels as practice grounds. He taught Kyuk Jun's father and Jun himself, when Jun was a child. When Jun joined our  
Order of the White Lotus as a Young Man, he was able to complete his training in secret in the Earth Kingdom. But his grandfather and father weren't so lucky. They were captured  
by Feng in Jun's absence. They were never seen again."

She smiled grimly. "But they did have one more trick up their sleeve: Kyuk Jun himself! They'd raised him as distant relatives, never giving away their  
true connection to Jun. Even now, Feng doesn't know that one of his closest relatives is the descendant of two secret Earth Bender criminals, that  
he captured almost thirty years ago."

"I guess by that burning house that the conflict hasn't stopped," said Katara grimly. Sindu shook her head again.

"A week or two ago, strange things started happening. Houses going up in flames. And strange sightings in the night. People are more scared than ever. Kyuk Jun says  
that the Governor is considering imposing martial law, like his grandfather once did. His troops terrorize the citizens. None of us are safe."

The Gaang 's noodles had gone cold, untouched, whilst they listened. Sindu, who had leaned forward dramatically to reveal this information, suddenly slapped her knee  
and laughed. "But we can't do anything about it now, at this time of night. You children ought to sleep. And no staying up all night gossiping and storytelling!"

That night the Gaang set up sleeping bags in the main room of the stone hut. With a cosy fire even Toph was convinced to stay indoors rather than take her usual spot in  
an earth-tent under the stars.

Despite Sindu's scolding, none of the Gaang were getting to sleep easily. The wind was still howling outside, and the story of Kyuk Jun and the Earth Settlers was fresh in their minds.

"An earth bender and a double agent," said Sokka dreamily. "This Kyuk Jun sounds awesome."

"Did anyone else notice that Sndu and Kyuk are kinda assuming that our plan for the Eclipse… doesn't work out? I don't know, should we be worried about that?"

"Meh, they're just making a plan B," said Toph evenly. "Nothing to worry about."

"And I bet he has tonnes of other information we could use on the day of the eclipse," Sokka went on, "maybe he knows a Fire Bending master too!"

"Maybe he even knows Jeong Jeong", suggested Katara. "Who knows, maybe they're working together; maybe he's down there with Kyuk Jun right now.  
It would be awesome to meet Jeong Jeong again! Right, Aang?"

Aang, lying on his back, was staring into space. He didn't reply for a moment. Then: "Even here. Can you guys believe it? Even here in the Fire Nation my  
disappearance caused so much suffering."

They all looked at him in surprise for a moment, consternation wrinkling Katara's brow.

Sokka snorted. "Forget about it. They're Fire Nation; they were probably just as angry and miserable before the war!"

"Do you really think that house was burned down by Fire Nation troops attacking their own town?"

"Where did I just say we were again?" said Sokka loudly. "Oh yeah - the __Fire__ Nation."

"I think Captain Boomerang's right on this one, Aang," added Toph. "Burning stuff is kinda their whole thing."

"Yeah. I guess." Aang fidgeted.

Sokka made a gesture of dismissal. "Besides, whatever's going on Kyuk Jun will be able to help us. He'll know what's going on."

"Yeah. We can trust him, he's a Double. A-gent," mimicked Toph, "I bet he's so awesome, right Sokka?"

"Hey, we're __all__ excited," said Sokka, going red.

"Wow, an earth bender and a double ageeentt!" Toph said, mimicking Sokka's voice. "You mean you're a real spy? I bet you can sneak into government bases and trick dumb officials and -"

"Cut it out!" Sokka blustered. "besides," he mumbled, "I'm the only boomerang pro round here."

He rolled over, followed by Toph, and they were both soon snoring away. Katara threw Aang a look, and in the gleam of the fire their eyes met.  
It was nothing much, just a wordless show of support, a small comfort. Whatever's going on, she wanted to say, we'll figure it out.

Katara was finally asleep too, but Aang didn't feel tired. He tossed and turned for awhile, then sat up, still wide awake. He groped his way to the front door and  
opened it a crack. Good, he thought, the wind had died down. Letting himself out, he splashed some water on his face from the stream. A brilliant near-full moon cast a silver glow.

"You're still awake" came the old lady's voice, making Aang jump. She was sitting on the low stone wall that circled the house.  
"I thought you would be. The others can't sense it, but you and I can."

"What do you mean?" asked Aang. A chill went up his spine. A cold feeling, like ice drops falling from the moon, filled the air. In the moonlight Sindu looked a different person,  
older and unfamiliar. Her bent head was almost meditative, but there was no peace in her posture, only dread.

"Something has been unleashed. But is it human, or spirit? Real, or an illusion? Alive, or dead?"

"Whatever's going on here, it's not good. Is it?" said Aang slowly.

The old woman didn't reply for a minute. Then she slowly raised an arm and pointed. "Look."

Aang followed the line of her finger down to the town: the tiles and bronze of crowded rooftops were bright in the moonlit night. It was easy to identify the burned house.  
It stood like a pulled tooth amid the orderly rows of red roofs, empty, a blackened stub.

"Something has been unleashed" she repeated. "Something powerful. Something dangerous! And it's getting worse. The town is not safe for anyone. "

"They don't understand. They will do anything to protect you, but they may not have any choice or chance. Sometimes in matters like this, the Avatar stands alone."

"I don't believe that," said Aang quietly.

"Believe what you will. Tell them if you will, though they may be safer knowing less! You are the Avatar. You must find the answer to these evil fires or Kyuk's mission will fail.  
For our people, there may be even worse consequences. If you must tell your friends, choose the moment well!"


	2. Witches

Dawn. The shutter had blown open again in the night, and Aang woke up to a rhombus of blue sky, the highest temple pagoda spires of the town cut off by the  
lower section of the window pane. Despite the open window, it was warm.

A bird's harsh caw became suddenly loud, then a black shape darted through the rhombus of blue, wheeled, and crash-landed on to the window-pane, causing Aang  
to jump up in surprise.

A rat-crow, reddish-black with shaggy feathers, perched on the windowpane, its pink tail hanging over the edge. Its beady eyes surveyed the room, taking in each sleeper by turn,  
and finally alighting on Aang.

From Aang's sleeping bag first one tentative ear appeared, then Momo darted out and settled on to Aang's shoulder. Aang cocked his head curiously at the rat-crow,  
and Momo mimicked him, green eyes wide.

"Whoa, you're sure ugly!" Aang laughed. He took a step forward, holding out his hand, expecting the rat-crow to fly off. But it ignored him. It surveyed the room once more;  
first Sokka, then Toph, and finally Katara. Its eyes fixed on her. Then it jumped from the pane __into__ the hut.

"Get out of here!"

Toph sat up suddenly, waving her hands in a flurry around her head. Squawking furiously the rat-crow bounced out of her reach and flapped out of the window.

The rat-crow gone, Toph was sitting straight up in her sleeping bag. She turned her head pointedly to 'look' at Aang in the way she only did when she was angry.

"Making some more flying friends, twinkletoes?"

"Sorry!" Aang rubbed the back of his head. "Did I wake you up?"

Toph snorted. "Yeah. Duh! Just Momo and Appa not enough flying-ness any more? And what's up with wandering around this early, mr baby steps?"

"I wasn't wandering! I just woke up too, when the rat-crow landed there." He looked at the windowpane. "I wonder what made it jump in on us like that."

"Beats me."

Aang glanced at Katara. She was still asleep, on her side, her body slowly rising and falling. He went to the window. Above the town a wispy black cloud was drifting over the  
twin stone pagodas - a whole flock of rat-crows.

Sokka yawned loudly. "Looks like someone woke up on the louder side of the bed this morning. Toph!"

He sat up and stretched.

After a hearty breakfast, Grandma Singu looked over them all fondly. After one night, she already reminded Sokka and Katara of Gran Gran.

"Good luck! I know you'll get on well with Kyuk Jun. I'll keep the noodles cooking for when you're back!"

And they left, Appa staying behind with Sindu, taking up the winding road down the valley. But not before Toph had taken Sindu aside in the morning sun.  
Bending the meteor bracelet from her arm, she molded it into a smooth sphere, orbiting in her hands, and gently held it towards Sindu. As if by instinct, Sindu mimicked  
Toph's hand gestures. Toph slowly withdrew her hands, and for a few seconds, the sphere wobbled in Sindu's control, and shakily hovered. Before it fell Toph earthbended  
it back into its bracelet shape on her wrist.

"You're a natural, Sindu! You're even better than twinkletoes here!" Toph exclaimed, delighted.

The old lady's eyes glistened with tears. "Once this war is over, I'll learn for real. You're never too old!"

"I'll say," laughed Aang. "It took me over one hundred years!"

They fell into step, Katara and Aang side by side in front, Sokka and Toph behind. It only took about five minutes under the hot Fire Nation sun before they were missing Appa,  
but the view of Hongtu was impressive. From their vantage point they could still see over the walls, on to the wide streets, gleaming market squares and rows of multi-storey,  
red-brick buildings that stretched up the other side of the valley.

Only by squinting could Aang pick out, among the sea of vivid, prosperous red, the missing tooth - the charred remains of last night's fire. He gulped, recalling Sindu's words to him alone. __Something has been unleashed…__

He looked at Katara, suddenly desperate to say something to her, but nothing came to mind. "Aren't you… hot, today?" he said finally, then immediately turned red.

"What? Oh yeah Aang, really hot," she replied absently, without turning her head.

"Nice one, twinkletoes," Toph whispered gleefully in his ear.

"Does anyone know where Kyuk Jun's house actually is?" said Katara, looking round this time.

"Grandma Sindu said that anyone would know," Toph put in. "So who shall we ask?"

They were close to the Western Gate now. Sokka pointed. "Don't suppose we can ask these guys?"

Two Fire Nation soldiers stood irritably to attention on each side of the gate, which was barely large enough for a cart to pass through.  
The Gaang hadn't seen anyone on their way down the valley, and the few people being pushed around by the guards on their way in and  
out the gate mostly peeled off to follow a small track around the base of the wall. They guessed the main gate must be on the city's east side, farthest from them.

Katara frowned, her eyes on a few stragglers who were passing mournfully between the guards, on their way out. They were carrying sacks and mobile bamboo vendor-frames,  
and almost every one was bent double with the weight of their loads; not to mention the glares of contempt from the guards. Some were leading pack animals that looked as  
miserable as their masters.

"Look at them… I wonder where they're going? Do you think they're Earth settlers? They look kind of different to the Fire Nation people we've seen before. I wonder where they're going."

"Maybe they're refugees," wondered Toph.

"Refugees fleeing __out__ of the Fire Nation?" asked Sokka. "Don't think so. Wait, we're almost there now. Everyone act natural!"

As they approached the guards they dropped obediently into single file. The more casually they tried to act, the more suspicious they looked;  
Aang tried to glower in what he imagined was a typical Fire Nation resting face, but failing that, broke into a loud whistle instead. As they walked under the guards'  
watch they were treated to an even longer glare, but nothing more.

They passed through the shadow of the city gate into the gleaming central street of Hongtu. The new buildings, some made of stone and almost all topped by red tiles,  
seemed to catch every ray of the late-morning sun. Despite this brightness, however, the street were desolate.

The Gaang walked onward surrounded by a near silence. There were few people on the street, and those they saw were subdued, lowering their heads as strangers passed,  
or hurrying on their way. Mostly they only saw people who had no choice but to be there: street vendors tentatively calling out their wares; carriage drivers and rickshaw-men  
waiting by their rides; the occasional tired guard. It was as though an invisible force had come down and lifted all the inessential noise and bustle out of the city.  
There were no heaving market squares, no relaxing gamblers or drinkers. Shops were closed and, in the shade of the gleaming rooftops, eerily dark.

"Where is everybody?" Katara wondered, glancing into empty shop-fronts and abandoned workshops.

"Must be the annual stay-indoors festival," Sokka mused. "Not exactly a warm welcome!"

"Put a sock in it," said Toph absently. Aang gulped. In the silent street even Toph and Sokka were instinctively a little hushed.

A black spot on one side of the street was slowly getting bigger until they were standing alongside it. It was the remains of the fire from last night. Not even a single wall was still standing.  
Bits of charred wood, black as pitch, were crushed and tangled together in an almost perfect square. The houses around it were blackened on their sides but had otherwise escaped, as  
though a giant finger had come down and squashed its unlucky victim flat into the ground.

Aang looked into the blackened remains and felt a pang of dread.

Katara said absently, "I hope whoever lived here wasn't… inside."

Aang looked at Katara, then back to the ruin. "What do you think did this?"

Sokka snorted. "You kidding?"

A clattering in the road caused them all to look round. An old man was staggering past them, bent double under the skeleton of an elaborate bamboo cooking apparatus  
strapped to him back and front. He was headed in the direction of the east gate, his sunburned head bowed stubbornly forward. As he passed them, he doggedly avoided  
meeting their gaze; then suddenly seemed to think better of it, and swung his eyes round on them. Leaning on a stick he swung himself around to face them, his contraption  
twisting and creaking furiously.

"Don't stand there slack-jawed over that!" he shouted at them. "It's bad luck to stare at it, even in th' light o' the day."

He looked them over critically, from beneath hunched brows. "You brats must just have arrived, not to know that. And bad timing too!"

"Do you know what happened here?" asked Katara, unperturbed.

The old man hesitated, then pointed back the way he'd come - further up the main street.

"Think you'll find your answer up there." He swung around again with equal noise and effort, and loped on.

"Where are you going?" Katara called after him.

"To the gate!" He croaked back. "With any luck they'll let me leave this crazy town this time. Anywhere's better than here!"

After a few seconds Sokka rushed after him to ask where Kyuk's house was - and also if the old man would happen to be working and could cook up a few sweet potatoes?  
But all he got was a stony silence.

They set off again, a little dejectedly. Now and again another wilted figure, reminiscent of the old man, and the stragglers outside the gate, would pass them by,  
but otherwise it remained deathly quiet. A little farther on the street began to widen, and up ahead an open square became visible. They were walking into a rising din of shouting,  
roaring, stamping and cheering, the sound of thousands of people pressed together. From where the last red-sided houses ended and the street disappeared into the square,  
they were staring into the backs of a vast, packed crowd. Every face looked forward, not one looked around or behind or noticed the Gaang approaching. Above them reared the  
two might stone pagodas they'd seen from Singdu's house the night before.

"Looks like we found the people," said Aang. "They look kinda excited about something. Maybe it's a festival?"

"Yeah, I wonder what festivals they have here?" Sokka mused. "It'd have to be pretty busy to draw this big a crowd? National festival of burning stuff? Or maybe death-to-the-Earth-Kingdom festival?"

"There's a platform up the front," said Toph. "And a couple of guys getting up on it now. And something else weird, something heavy and metal."

"If only we could see to the front, we might get an idea what was happening," Katara interjected; a sly smile on her lips.

"Absolutely not!" Sokka crossed his arms. "Aang, I forbid you to air bend. Toph, I double forbid you to Earth bend!"

Aang looked over Sokka's shoulder at Katara, then copied her sly smile. "Well, in that case. I'm probably the lightest…"

A few moments later Aang was balanced precariously on Sokka's shoulders. Sokka groaned, mostly out of complaint, as Aang shuffled and twisted to get a better view.  
"You need to stop sneaking the steamed buns Aang, when did you get so heavy? Besides, Toph is definitely lighter than - actually, never mind."

Tens of thousands of people were gathered in the square, so thickly that the gleaming white ground they'd seen last night was totally obscured. In front of them,  
seemingly a long way off, was a vast wall, almost as high as the town walls. The pagodas reared up from behind it, so that it was clear this vast wall was actually the temple perimeter;  
the peaks and spikes of the wall's fortified edge were extravagantly carved, and the wall itself was covered in glistening blue and red mosaic tiles. In the centre of the wall, dwarfing  
the massed crowd beneath, was a vast metal door, gleaming blue with inlaid jewels, veins of carved marble and tiny inlaid figurines carved from what Aang guessed was Hongtu's  
famous red agate. The gate's colossal size gave the impression of a second city hidden within.

The crowd weren't looking into the temple gates, but at a wooden platform erected beside it, against the temple wall. An ornately robed official stood upon the platform  
surrounded by an entourage of guards and well-groomed cronies. Behind him were four metal cages, arranged in a row. Each was almost as tall as a person.

"I don't think it's a festival, guys," said Aang slowly. "The crowd's not exactly excited. More like angry."

The crowd looked ready to surge forward on to the wooden platform; every minute or so the official would raise his hands and shout furiously for calm, and the soldiers  
beside him would blast intense waves of fire over the heads of the onlookers. The crowd would quieten and scamper back from the heat, dispersing a little only to regroup  
even louder than before.

Aang relayed this to the rest of the group, who hesitated for a moment, but Toph started forward unfazed, with a cry of "Let's get closer!"

Sokka took the opportunity to shake Aang thankfully off of his shoulders so that they could hurry after her. The crowd looked impenetrable and volatile, but however much  
they shoved and scrambled, the raucous adults barely seemed to notice them. As they got deeper towards the centre of the crowd, the visceral hum of thousands of voices  
began to fragment into snippets of shouts and roars.

"Punish the witches!" they were crying.

"No more dark magic!"

"Stop these attacks!"

"No more victims!"

When they found themselves only a few rows from the front, the Fire Nation official stepped forward. He was a tall man with a top knot held by an agate pin, and a pointed, jet-black beard.  
His flowing dark robe reached the platform, and was topped by ornately, fiercely decorated shoulder pads. His eyes registered the crowd, passing slowly from left to right,  
his gaze passive and mysterious as a deep lake. Looking up from ground level, Aang watched him keenly, and swore for a moment the gaze settled on __them,__ and a fierce knowing,  
something instinctive and ages-old, passed through the official's eyes at the sight of the Avatar. Aang knew it: this was Governor Feng. Sweeping out his arms, Feng raised his voice,  
deep and crisp, above the din of the onlookers.

"My fellow citizens. Last night, it happened again. Fire!" This was greeted by furious roars. "And the night before, a fire. And these are no natural fires: that, anyone can see.  
This is the work of Yin demons, ghosts, monsters, Fox Spirits unleashed among us! Now we dare not leave our homes. At night, we dare not retire to our separate rooms,  
but cower with our families night after night, too afraid to be alone. We dream of the spirits walking our streets. They knock on our doors, and they try to get in."

"My brothers and sisters, we cannot live in such fear: now we must punish the traitors who have unleashed this evil. Today, we have found them, the dark practitioners,  
the conjurers, letting loose these spirits on us. __Here they are__!"

To an even mightier cry from the crowd, Feng stepped aside and swept his arm over the metal cages. Inside each was a cowering figure, dressed in Fire Nation Robes,  
hiding their faces in horror and shame. At Feng's announcement they collapsed on their knees, begging with clasped hands.

Feng waited some time to for the crowd to quiet a little. He seemed to be enjoying it, however expressionless he remained. Aang could remember the same cold look,  
somewhere behind the eyes, in Admiral Zhao, in Princess Azula.

"These Betrayers," He went on, "Were overcome by jealousy at their Fire Nation Cousins. They've reverted to the primitive savagery of their Earth Kingdom ancestors.  
They each chose to summon up dark magic from the Spirit World, calling on their vengeful ancestors' ghosts to haunt us. My brothers and sisters - don't spare  
even a shred of sympathy for them. They are not Fire Nation citizens. They are not one of us!"

From the parapets above, four huge chains suddenly swung down the wall towards the platform below. Snapping taut over the battlements they crashed against the wall with  
a metallic thunder that drowned the din of the crowd, then rattled the last few metres down, until they hung just above the wooden platform. Each chain was as thick as a  
person's arm.

"These Earth Kingdom sympathisers, these spirit conjurers, these Enemies Within, deserve to be punished by their very own dark magic!" Feng pointed towards the chains.  
"Let us leave them here to rot on the temple wall. Tonight, perhaps they'll fall victim to the very spirits they summoned to torment us. Guards: raise them up!"

On his command the guards clambered on to the roofs of the cages, attaching the hooked chains. After they'd leaped off the chains began to slowly recede and tauten,  
lifting the cages off of the platform.

As they rose, they scraped against the temple wall with the loudest sound of all, silencing everything going on below. Pieces of decorative tile, agate and quartz and  
lapis lazuli, scraped from the wall, dropped beneath the cages in a flashing rain. In a minute, the four cages were dangling high above the crowd and the platform.  
The small figures within were still.

"This is dreadful," whispered Katara. "It's barbaric."

"We can't get involved," said Sokka tautly, over her shoulder. "It would give us away."

Aang glanced at her; her fists were clenched.

"There must be a way," she went on. "A way to help them without revealing who we are."

"It does seem a little scary up there," said Toph, causing the others to look around in surprise at this show of sympathy. "What!" she snapped. "I can feel those cages bouncing against the wall, ok? It wasn't pretty."

In the clamour of the cages being raised, Governor Feng had vacated the platform, leaving only a few soldiers on guard. The crowd was already dispersing, the  
ear-splitting din fading to a hum. Within minutes, thousands were gone, and it was as though the square itself were growing larger and grander.  
Limestone paving tiles appeared among the crush of feet.

"I wonder what they did to be put up there," said Aang.

"Didn't you hear the guy?" said Toph sarcastically, "They've been casting 'evil spells' - woooooo?" She mimed an exaggerated spell-casting wave.

Toph's action drew a few raised eyebrows from some of the stragglers still hanging around the platform. One in particular, a slender kid not much older than them,  
in expensive white garb, turned up his nose at them and shouted, "Betrayer brats, go back to the Earth Kingdom!"

Sokka looked at Toph and grimaced. "What? I was just kidding," Toph snapped back.

Suddenly the white-garbed kid was beside them. His expression had changed from disgust to one of something like reverence. He looked at each of the Gaang in turn,  
then settled on Aang with slightly wide eyes. "I found you. Thank goodness!" he said breathlessly. "Err, sorry about that - I mean, just a second ago.  
It's better to say something to get some of those bystanders' anger out. The people hanging around the front of these kind of gatherings are always - you know - the angriest ones!"

They stared at him. "Kyuk Jun?" Aang said incredulously.

"What? Oh no! I'm Kyuk's nephew, YanShen. An honour to meet you, Avatar Aang and friends!" He hurried over his greeting in a rush, bowing at the same time and saying 'and friends' into the paving. "Actually, it was Kyuk who told me that trick about insulting you. I wouldn't have thought of that."

"Gee, thank goodness," said Toph sarcastically.

"Grandma Singdu didn't mention a nephew. How can we trust you, anyway?" added Sokka suspiciously.

"She didn't?" YanShen scratched his head sheepishly. "Wait, I forgot! Kyuk prepared me for that too." Reaching into his sleeve, he flashed them a white lotus tile,  
before hurriedly concealing it again. "He said you'd recognise this. He didn't say why, but is that enough? It's really a pleasure to meet you, Mr Avatar. I mean, Avatar Aang!  
Now let's get back to my Uncle's place. He's waiting to meet you. Besides, it's not a safe time to be hanging around on the street!"

"Yeah," said Sokka, "we noticed. So what are we waiting for?"

Before Sokka had finished speaking YanShen was leading Aang eagerly by the arm towards the north road out of the square, to the left of where they'd entered.  
The square was eerily deserted now, and the very brightness of the paved ground and ornamented Temple Wall felt unnatural, overloaded. When they were by the shoulder of the building that flanked road and square, Katara glanced back at the temple wall, and the four hanging metal cages. At this distance, they could have been empty


	3. Kyuk Jun

They set a fast pace, with the gangling YanShen racing ahead with a spring in his step. He walked with his hands clasped severely behind his back like an old man,  
despite the fact that he couldn't have been older than Sokka. As he walked, he leaned over his shoulder to talk to them; occasionally his old-man act was broken  
by an embarrassing collision with people walking towards him.

"It's lucky I found you when I did. Now's not a safe time for four suspicious-looking kids to be walking around the streets: least of all you, Avatar! The town is on high-alert."

"We noticed," said Sokka flatly. "Are people really that scared of witchcraft here?"

"Witchcraft? Well, maybe! Who knows what it really is. It started a week or so again, and has worsened night after night. Hauntings, ghost sightings, and now the houses being burned.  
But we can't change this right now, Avatar. Kyuk Jun's mission is more important, and Aang, your fire bending training in preparation for the Solar Eclipse is most important of all!"

"What will happen to those people in the metal cages?" Katara broke in. But YanShen, after almost crashing headfirst into an oncoming Fire Nation Guard, was looking ahead again.  
He either didn't hear, or pretended not to.

Kyuk Jun's home was on the north side of town. Though not far from the temple, the steep valley was already beginning to lift them above its lowest point, and the regular red roofs  
of houses and shops zigzagged gradually higher. After some time they crossed a side-road and continued parallel to a head-height brick wall, which YanShen informed them was the  
perimeter wall of Kyuk's compound.

"Compound?" said Sokka in surprise.

Yanshen looked round again. "Yes, it's a collection of buildings under one landowner that we have here in the Fire Nation."

"I know what it is! I meant I was expecting a safe-house, you know? Maybe an underground hideout, a secret door or something. A password, at least."

YanShen reddened. "Didn't Sindu say? Kyuk Jun's one of the wealthiest men in Hongtu."

"Looks like it," said Sokka, trying to peer over the top of the perimeter wall that they were still following. "Gee Toph, Kyuk's house is even bigger than yours."  
Toph punched him in the ribs.

They reached a circular exterior door. YanShen produced a brass key, paused reverentially, then unlocked the door. It opened into an immaculately trimmed square courtyard,  
at the far end of which was a dark wooden outhouse. Every joint, angle, leaf and stone spoke of order and regularity.

Now they were inside the compound YanShen looked calmer. It was hard to say, as he talked eagerly over his shoulder, if he was just pleased not to look where  
he was going now he was back on familiar ground; or if there was something more deep-rooted in his longing for home. He explained that this outer courtyard was landscaped to  
represent an idealized Earth Kingdom scene, so it was called the Earth Courtyard.

"Wow, just like home," joked Toph. "They seriously let you get away with having an Earth Courtyard here?"

"As long as you make it an outer courtyard," replied YanShen wryly.

They passed through the outhouse into the inner courtyard, which was dominated by a man-made lake that split it down the middle A covered bridge with an  
ornate wood and tile roof, level with the lake, zigzagged across it. Stunningly bright koi fish darted from side to side, popping their heads up to peek at the new guests.

YanShen explained that this was the Koi Courtyard. Aang and the Gaang could tell he was loving his chance to play the host, so they didn't hurry him. It was quiet here,  
quiet in a quite different way to the eeriness of the streets. That seemed far away now. The Gaang took deep breaths and found they'd relaxed.

On the other side of the zigzag bridge, an ancestral hall rose above the level of the surrounding compound. It was built of dark wood carved into geometric patterns,  
and set above the garden on a low platform of stone steps. A passage further into the garden led off to the right, but YanShen led them up the stairs and over another,  
high step that lay across the threshold of the hall; a step believed to protect against evil spirits.

They were in a high-ceilinged chamber lined by ornate ebony chairs, and painted from floor to ceiling with grandiose scenes of Fire Nation aristocratic life. On their left, scholars reclined  
in tranquil gardens; on their right, ancient warriors hunted dragons amid a mirage of clouds. The centre of the hall was dominated by a richly decorated altar on a marble plinth.  
Atop the plinth was the stylised body of an enclosed chariot which looked like a miniature palace, shimmering in gold and red, and hung with a burning red Fire Nation banner.  
Mounted in the chariot was a fierce-faced warrior dressed in stunningly green robes and brandishing a larger-than-life spear in one hand.

Sokka whistled softly, and his quiet note echoed up the stone colonnades and into the arches above.

YanShen clasped his hands behind his back like a monk paying homage. "Kyuk built this whole place himself from his salary as a city administrator.  
He's spent years entertaining the governor here, building trust with him. It helps his cause to show good taste in his furnishings and architecture - not to mention a little patriotism too.  
Really this house is just another part of his disguise."

"Yeah," Aang heard Sokka mutter, deadpan, "an awful comfy part of the disguise."

YanShen seemed not to hear. "This hall is devoted to our ancestors. That's actually Kyuk's grandfather, an Earth Settler, up there", he pointed to the statue, "but as far as Governor Feng's concerned, this hall is devoted to Fire. I guess it has to be, being in the centre of the compound! Now where's Old Chen got to? He's usually so good about visitors…"

Old Chen, who turned out to be the servant, not being present, YanShen decided to give the Gaang a quick tour of the remainder of the compound. It didn't surprise him,  
he said that Kyuk wasn't home yet. Kyuk was always having to rush out. Hours later he'd wander back, probably peering into the sky still lost in thought.

YanShen pointed out the Cloud Pagoda, the compound's representation of Air, from outside the ancestral hall. It was in the furthest northern corner, the tallest spot but certainly  
not the grandest. All the same, Aang's heart lifted just to see his family Element had been given a place at all. Next came a series of rooms adjoining the ancestral hall: living quarters,  
reception rooms, and a wide dining hall, all immaculately furnished, laced together by avenues and covered corridors that invited views into the gardens outside. Finally he took them  
up to the first floor, where a single wide bedroom had been prepared in waiting for them. Elaborate, encased four-poster beds, each with their own sliding wooden door, stood like miniature houses in each corner of the room. Windows with open shutters lined the far wall, looking west over the city - they could even make out Sindu's tiny stone hut perched on the hill, distant  
and high above them.

"Sorry there's just the one bed chamber", said YanShen, frowning. "I know it must seem stingy of us, but Kyuk insists on keeping the largest guest chamber free at all times,  
for Governor Feng's use."

"He actually stays over?" said Sokka in surprise.

"That's right. He never says in advance, of course! It's probably for the best to be close to your friends at the moment anyway, what with all the… you know."

"The sightings," Katara finished.

"Yes. That. Anyway! I'll go make some tea!" He strode back to the door, paused, then looked back at them, his face beaming with hope and excitement.  
"It's an honour to actually get to meet you, Avatar Aang!"

Several minutes of awkward inertia followed YanShen's departure. Each member of the Gaang gravitated, under the unspoken rule of preference, to the bed that they preferred;  
except Sokka, who rushed back and forth inspecting them as though his life depended on it - opening the wooden screens, peering inside, looking at the sheets, puffing the pillows -  
before finally claiming his choice by leaning on the bedpost triumphantly.

"Who'd have thought Kyuk Jun would richer than a Ba Sing Se bureaucrat?" Toph mused. She wandered to Toph's bed and laid a hand contemplatively on its wood-carved shell, then casually pushed Sokka away from it. After a moment's resistance, pushing with all his might against Toph's immovable hand, Sokka slunk away with a sigh, accepting defeat,  
to his second favourite choice of bed (which Aang graciously ceded to him). Their beds decided and their few bags deposited, conversation turned to the 'hauntings'.

"There's no way they're real," said Sokka. "A few houses burning down? Why's everyone acting so crazy?"

"That old peddler said not to stare into the ruins, remember?" said Toph, recalling the stumbling cook and the burned-out shell of house they'd seen that morning. "Some people must really believe it."

Aang scratched his head. "We've ran into a few spirits before," said Aang thoughtfully "but they've never attacked anyone, right? Think about HeiBai, or Wan Shi Tong's spirit library -  
they were just protecting their homes. Could someone really be __summoning__ them somehow, like Governor Feng said at the square?"

Toph snorted. "You kidding? These Fire Nation crazies probably lit those fires themselves. They are the __Fire__ nation after all."

"Toph's right," Sokka went on, "Remember Feng ranting about 'The Betrayers'? If there's someone burning houses round here, I don't think we need to go to the spirit world to find them."

YanShen had revealed Governor Feng's identity to the Gaang on the way to teh house, although they'd already guessed. They thought of the four metal cages.  
"Those so-called 'sorcerers' are still locked up on that wall," said Katara bitterly.

She looked out the open shutters at the baking sun overhead, and her face fell. Aang couldn't help himself. "We can save them, Katara."

Toph nodded, slammed her fists together. "Yeah, nothing a little metalbending can't fix!"

At this Sokka put on his scholarly face. It was too dangerous, he explained. Any sign of trouble could force the Avatar out of hiding. Not to mention endanger Kyuk's mission.

"These are Earth Settlers, his people. I bet Kyuk would approve," Aang said. Sokka grumbled, but agreed they could at least ask Kyuk when he arrived.

Conversation moved on to other things - Hongtu itself, with its gleaming but quiet streets; Kyuk's mission, and the fearsome Governor; and finally came full circle,  
back to his enormous, pristine house.

"Which reminds me." Sokka made a show of looking around him. "Is it just me or is everything a bit too __red__ around here?"

"It's part of his disguise. YanShen said that," Katara said.

"He had a bright red Fire Nation battle standard right behind his ancestor statue! What's more Fire Nation than angry ancestor types with war banners?"

"Metal tanks?" Aang suggested. "Spiky helmets? Pointy shoes?"

Toph shrugged. "You really don't trust him? He's an earth bender, remember."

"I'm not saying I don't trust him. It just doesn't feel right somehow."

A clomping of feet on the wooden stairs was followed by YanShen appearing, flustered, at the door. "Old Chen's back!" he almost shouted in delight.  
"So Kyuk can't be far behind him. Let's go down and meet him in the Koi courtyard. He's going to be overjoyed!"

Without waiting he bounded back down the stairs, and the Gaang hurried to catch up with him. Only Toph hesitated, sensing more than one pair of feet.  
They rushed down the steps, through the living quarters, into the gardened outer passage that led into the Koi courtyard on the left, the three stone steps to the  
ancestral hall on the right. First Aang spun round the corner, then Katara, then Sokka. Toph ran to catch up, hesitated again; pursed her lips, then followed.

Kyuk Jun stood on the far side of the Koi pond, hands behind his back, cutting a straight and serene figure. He saw them all and smiled.  
Beside him was Governor Feng, in the same black cloak, hands hidden from view. He stood inside Kyuk's personal space, close enough to be a friend,  
but his blank gaze was turned on Aang .


	4. Governor Feng

Without a flicker of alarm, Kyuk Jun strolled casually on to the zigzag bridge. The Governor followed, shuffling behind him in his black robe. Still looking ahead, Kyuk called out, "Governor - Look who I've brought to see you!" His voice was clear as a temple bell. In a few long strides he was the Gaang's side of the Koi pond.

Kyuk Jun swept out his hand to encompass the Gaang. "Governor Feng, I present to you my nephews and nieces of the Earth Colonies! This is Chin, Pip, Mira and Li!"

Aang glanced over his shoulder. His friends looked undecided whether to bow in politeness or start shooting earth and water. Here was Governor Feng just a foot away from them, sneering down his nose; a quietly arrogant, quietly smoldering old villain. He couldn't have contrasted more with Kyuk, whose shoulders slouched just enough to show careless calm, who looked them all over without one blink, or hair, or word out of place.

Now Feng's wiry hand was emerging - barely - from the sleeve of his robe, propping itself against the black sleeve of the other arm (the hand on this side didn't appear), and performing the slightest bow possible to each of them. One by one the Gaang returned Feng's bow. They introduced themselves - almost as thoughtlessly as though they'd rehearsed it - as Chin, Pip, Mira and Li, and even in the order Kyuk had introduced them.

"My young friends are touring the Fire Nation to learn a little more about our heritage," Kyuk explained. Feng tipped his head. He had a habit Aang had already noticed, of turning his head and setting his teeth when other people spoke to him, as though hearing nails on a chalkboard.

"Let's go through to eat," Kyuk went on, unfazed. "You must all be hungry!"

Feng nodded tersely, waited, and fell into step beside Kyuk. Aang, by taking one carefully considered step at a time, managed to follow a few steps behind the Fire Nation minister. He looked around him; all his friends, in their own way, looked singularly worried - Katara biting her lip, Toph with her head bowed, giving nothing away. Sokka's head was slumped in his arms. A small whimper emerged from within the crooks of his elbows - it sounded something like, "I can't believe we're actually doing this!"

They made their way to the dining hall. Kyuk sat at the head of an ebony table laid with chopsticks and silver bowls. Feng, the honoured guest, sat on his right, the Gaang on his left; YanShen was perched miserably beside Feng.

A series of cold dishes were served first, by half a dozen servants who entered silently through side doors. Whilst these came, Kyuk spun a tale about his nephews and nieces that was incredible to witness. He went along like a master painter, adding in stroke after stroke to the imaginary lives of Chin, Pip, Mira and Li until they were all fleshed out and believable: spoilt kids, it was true, but good at heart, full of love for the Fire Nation, wondering about their ancestors and their esteemed pedigree… and on and on, all without missing a beat.

It helped that Feng didn't look at all interested. All of the Gaang were familiar, from their own experiences, with the way Feng looked at them - the patronising look of adults who always think they know better. If four grown-up relatives with military medals and prestigious titles had surprised Feng at his surprise visit to Kyuk, he might have acted differently. But four children deserved the least of his attention possible.

He never asked them to speak for themselves, and soon the conversation turned to 'business'. Kyuk explained how military operations were going - he knew the figures on the Fire Nation regiments in the city by heart. Feng's teeth didn't set on this subject; he leaned closer, seeming to enjoy himself, forgetting all about the kids opposite him. By this time new dishes were being served, freshly cooked, and the Gaang had recovered their senses a little bit. It didn't feel so unbearable any more to be sitting opposite such a powerful figurehead of the Fire Nation - especially to Katara, who could still picture the wretched figures in the metal cages from earlier. By blotting that image out, they could just about re-imagine Feng as just a bad-tempered, humourless, sour old man.

When Feng's head was tilted, his profile turned to the speaker, his other eye was like a snake's eye keeping watch for prey. Suddenly, he interrupted Kyuk. "Is that girl - Chin? - blind?"

Toph jumped. Feng sat so still, she hadn't detected that he was looking at her. "I'm not Chin, I'm Mira," she answered moodily.

"Your sister lets her wander the Fire Nation?" asked Feng, ignoring Toph.

"She's independent," replied Kyuk, "And Mira wants to bring honour to our family and nation. We trust her to make her own way as long as her cousins are there to support her." Kyuk had made up a more complicated story about their lineage, but he still referred to them all as his nephews and nieces, and between them as 'cousins'.

Feng scoffed. "I knew it. Parenting has fallen by the roadside in the Colonies. This proves it."

"They're more liberal," said Kyuk evenly.

"But why show her anything, when she can't see?" Feng persisted.

Toph was going pale. "I can see some. You'd be surprised, Feng."

"That's __Governor__ Feng," Kyuk interrupted, but Feng looked more amused than insulted. "They __do__ need some lessons in decorum! Mira, didn't you say? How much have you learned in your travels so far? How about this one: "Trust your elders to know what's best for you?"'

"Yeah, I heard that one," replied Toph, through gritted teeth.

Kyuk tried to offer Feng some wine as a distraction technique, but gave up - he could tell when Feng was intractable. He turned his gaze on Katara. "How about you, young lady? Have you heard, "Protect your elders even when they are wrong?" And "a father is worth a dozen children?"'

Katara stubbornly looked at her bowl. "Nope, I hadn't. Governor Feng."

Suddenly a jarring crash shook the wooden shutters behind them, causing them all to jump to their feet.

It was twilight. Servants had lit candles without being noticed, but still the room was dim. The open shutters behind Kyuk's and Feng's chair looked out on to the western, 'Air' courtyard; a smashed section of one shutter lay beneath the window.

A chalcedony wine jug by Feng's hand had been upset when he stood up; he ignored it as it rolled gracefully along the table, leaving a honey-coloured trail, pitched over the table side, and shattered at his feet. A draft of wind slapped the candle flames, making the room flicker.

Slowly, hands clasped behind him, Feng walked to the damaged shutter, but he didn't stop to look at it. He trod over the broken fragments and looked out the window.

Kyuk slouched back into his chair, resting an arm on the back. The Gaang didn't follow suit.

"Something hit the shutter…" Sokka stated, then fell quiet again. Feng looked on past it, into the gathering wind. Black shapes, a flock of large birds, glided in silhouette against the sunset over the hill-side.

"You should knock down that Cloud Pagoda of yours!" said Feng absently, his eyes fixed on it. "Air Nomads shouldn't be commemorated."

Kyuk hesitated, then said bluntly, "The air nomads don't matter, Governor Feng, since the wind still blows without them. So why not have a Cloud Pagoda, just for the wind? It's a symbol of Balance, of elemental unity."

"Balance? Unity?" Feng turned to face them, eyes narrowed. "I expected more from you, Kyuk Jun: falling for words like 'balance' and 'unity'! Do you see either of those in our city now? Spirits roam free, attacking when they can. It's a hunting ground under our very noses. Even now, vengeful ghosts and spirits spy on us. There's no such thing as balance, just eternal war."

He picked up a fragment of the broken shutter; it was carved into the shape of a bamboo leaf.

"What about this saying, children?" he held up the bamboo leaf as a demonstration. "Which of you has heard this: "All you have is a gift from your elders?'" He looked at each of them in turn.

"I never heard that. Does that mean you've brought us a gift?" said Sokka drily.

Feng laughed. "Quite the opposite. The point of this saying is that everything you have is a loan from those who are __better__ than you. From your superiors. The greatest way to show respect is to acknowledge this."

"Feng's right," Kyuk said. With a clap of his hands, two servants came rushing in, carrying between them a beautifully carved Red Agate dragon on a pedestal. Its flowing form flowed with a hundred hues of red, following the natural layers of the agate. The servant passed it to Kyuk, who stood again, bowed gracefully to Feng, then handed him the dragon. Feng took the sculpture and observed it minutely, holding his face close.

"Exceptional, quite exceptional," he breathed. He then passed it back to the servant. "Your generosity knows no bounds, Kyuk Jun."

"It's right to show such generosity to the Governor. Especially after the success today. Order may be restored soon."

Aang let out a sigh of relief - it looked like mission distraction had been accomplished. He'd barely said a word so far and he wanted to keep it that way, especially after Feng had mentioned the air nomads.

"Quite!" Feng agreed, looking back at the children, who were still standing. Just as before, when he'd noticed Toph was blind, his attention seemed to flip. Suddenly the Red Agate Dragon was totally forgotten, and something he'd noticed far earlier, perhaps only subconsciously, was flashing to the front of Feng's mind. His eyes narrowed a little. He still smiled, but it was a different smile. His formal air was filled with malice.

"What about your nephews and nieces, Kyuk? Have you brought me a gift, children?"

"How could they bring anything worthy of you?" said Kyuk lightly.

"Oh, a gift is valuable for its rareness!" Feng replied with equal lightness. "Your gift is beautiful, but it is still Red Agate, no? Rare neither to me or you. " He was speaking cautiously now, building up to a point. "The most valuable gifts are the rarest ones, rare to the receiver __or__ rare to the giver. It needn't have much material value so long as it shows __respect__." He pointed with the bamboo leaf at a space between the Gaang, then at each of them in turn. "So, children? Any ideas? It really could be anything, just a token to remind me of your visit, and to share from the Earth Colonies."

The bamboo leaf came to rest on Toph. It fixed there steadily, the intended target all along, Aang could tell. "What about that dark bracelet, Mira?"

He remembered her name now, too. Toph flinched as though hit; then her fists clenched. "My meteor bracelet's not up for grabs. Sorry."

"A meteor bracelet, you said? It's the perfect gift for an elder."

"Not this time."

"Oh, but I insist!"

They were squaring up to each other; Aang and the others looked on helplessly.

Sokka pushed around the table suddenly and jumped into an awkward bow. "Governor Feng!" he said loudly. "Take my space-sw… I mean my meteor sword instead. It's of the same material as T - Mira's bracelet. And I think it would fit a military… a military guy like you, better than the bracelet." As he made this offer he unsheathed the sword and held it up before him; its black blade flashed orange in the dim light.

Feng's lips creased into a bemused smirk. "A fine offer, Li, truly!" He looked ready to slowly applaud. "But you're a man, and need this sword to defend yourself in a world filled with war. Jewellery is better as a gift. Put your weapon back in its sheath, young man."

Surely Feng couldn't see it, couldn't tell from Toph's bowed head, unseeing eyes and fists clenched under the table; but Aang could see that Toph was trembling.

"Offer Governor Feng your bracelet, Mira," said Kyuk softly. He extended an open hand to her. "Show him the respect he deserves." He almost whispered, "This is the right thing to do."

Ganged up on from two sides, Toph's unflinching expression melted. She slowly, hesitantly removed the bracelet and put it into Kyuk's hand. Kyuk passed it to Feng.

"I'm honoured." Feng gave an exaggerated bow. "Thank you. Mira."

"Don't mention it." Toph snapped back, and sat down with a thud. Aang and Katara looked mournfully at her, but there was nothing they could do without drawing attention. The only thing they could have chanced, to offer a defiant expression or a look of concern, was impossible with Toph.

The whole group now rejoined the table, Feng pushing YanShen out of the way without a glance as he sat between them. YanShen looked like he'd seen a ghost in the first course and still hadn't recovered. New dishes were brought out. The shutters were closed, blocking the wind. The candles stopped flickering. The broken shutter was swept away. To an outside viewer - a servant who had just come in, or a messenger - it would be impossible to tell that something imperceptible at the table had changed.

 ** **To all my readers, any review you leave, even if it's just a few words, would be hugely appreciated!****


	5. Feng's Threat

Another excruciating hour passed in which Feng tried non-stop to bait them. This wasn't a skill they'd had much experience in, and it was made worse by Feng's delight in it. He'd forgotten the sinister moment of the broken shutter in the twilight. Now this was all about entertainment. Whenever the subject moved anywhere near the Air Nomads, Aang would fidget and Kyuk would draw in a deep breath. Feng, on the other hand, seemed to sense he'd found a nerve, and poked it gleefully.

The dinner concluded, Feng stood solemnly and led the way - without any word in advance to Kyuk - to the ancestral hall. There they lit incense, bowed and knelt before the raised statue in solemn joined them without a word when they had lit one incense stick and completed one 'round' of bows, motioning to the others to join them. Clearly this was an established ritual.

His prayers said, Feng stood, and again without a word he and Kyuk walked into the Koi courtyard. It was the evening now, very dark, the pond silvery and disturbed by the gathering wind.

Halfway across the koi bridge, Kyuk and Feng made their final farewells. Just as when they'd came in, as Feng left it was as if they were the best of friends. It was impossible to spot a dividing line or a sore point between them; Kyuk looked every bit a Fire Nation official, and next to Kyuk, unbelievably, a lot of imagination could even conjure an image of Feng in Earthly colours, as a Ba Sing Se noble. They bowed to each other one last time, and then they hugged. Each of the Gaang bowed to Feng, who lowered his head in a curt nod. As Aang lowered his eyes to the bridge's wooden boards, he was thanking all the Avatars of the past that the evening was over.

Feng swept around on his heel to leave, then paused.

"Seeing you has calmed my heart," said Feng slowly, with his back to them. "In troubled times like these, wise friends and loyal subjects are a leader's most valuable and rarest gift."

"I'm glad to be of service," said Kyuk Jun. "A meal at my home is the least I can offer as a friend."

"I hope your friendship will be enough," said Feng. In the evening dim, his black robe looked like that of a mad priest. Incense, burning on the ancestral altar and picked up by the breeze, wafted outside to them, hit Aang's nostrils and made him feel lightheaded.

"I was pleased with the punishment of those witches today," Feng went on. His gaze never wavered. "Those three Betrayers hanging on the temple wall deserve what they get. Don't lose any sleep over them, Kyuk. A wise leader is merciless sometimes."

"Very true," said Kyuk grimly. "We all do what we need to."

"But there's more." Feng paused. " I should warn you that if this sacrifice doesn't appease the evil that has been unleashed, we shall have no choice but to look further for the culprits. Troubling news reached me today: your nephew - your 'other' nephew" - he pointed to YanShen, standing subdued by the side of the pond - "was spotted yesterday visiting that mad old woman Sindu, on the edge of town."

He turned his head slightly, revealing one leering eye. "To go there, at a time like this? It's reckless. You know as well as I how all the townsfolk loathe and fear her. If there are more witches summoning dark spirits to be found, they may call for her - and your nephew - to be next. And if the crowd are furious enough, I may be unable to resist them. Just a warning!"

And without another word he turned on his heel and strode out the courtyard gate.

Silence reigned. Only the breeze and the lapping of the pond, and the wash of the Koi's leisurely fins, made any sound. Kyuk Jun let out a deep, long sigh and slumped against the bridge's wooden rail. The Gaang had broken up a bit in the courtyard behind the walkway and on the steps. They'd thought Feng was leaving, and his final words caught them reeling, planting them where they'd stopped. Kyuk made no move to talk, only staring blankly into space.

"What was that?" said Aang slowly.

"Isn't it obvious, Twinkletoes," said Toph. "Feng's gonna lock up Kyuk's nephew. Just because."

Kyuk nodded, his face stern but without shock. A few seconds of terse silence passed.

"Well," said Sokka finally. "apart from that last bit, I thought that went okay. Well done everyone for keeping so calm! I mean he was really going at it when he started about Earth Kingdom dental hygiene, and I _thought_ he had Katara and I when he started talking about the cold freezing Water Tribe brains, but we hung in there. I'm proud!"

"That arrogant, sadistic little _tyrant_!" cried Katara, slamming her fists on her knees. Her movement involuntarily exploded the Koi-pond upward in a geyser of foam. Aang, Toph and Kyuk nearly jumped out of their skin. Immediately relenting, Katara started carefully waterbending the shipwrecked koi back into the pond.

"He was worse than any stuck-up Fire Nation official our parents ever told us about" added Sokka angrily, dropping his attempt at conciliation.

"Some kind of messed up," Toph agreed bitterly.

Only Kyuk remained stony-faced, leaning against the railing. Aang sensed what they were all thinking; slowly the three of them turned their eyes on Kyuk, who returned their gaze with a flicker of defiance.

"How can you stay so calm with him, Kyuk? He's… nuts."

"I'm not calm," said Kyuk. "Avatar, believe me: I get angry the moment I see him. But I have to keep it under control, keep it in, until our mission's finished. That little tyrant is the key to saving my city - the whole world, maybe - from the Fire Nation. He knows where the Fire Lord will hide out for the Eclipse, I'm sure of it. He knows their plans for the Comet. Yes, he torments and imprisons us. But once he finally talks, it'll have been worth it. Besides, I'm close now, really close - he was as friendly tonight as he's ever been."

"That was _friendly_?" said Toph.

"The more relaxed he is, the more hateful he talks. When I first began to build his trust, he would hardly say a word. Believe it or not, more badger-mole manure out of his mouth means my mission's working. Not that this makes it any easier to bear!"

"You must be patient as a lion-turtle," sighed Aang. His shoulders had slumped and his eyes softened, involuntarily, in a show of conciliation. Like it or not, he had to admit he trusted Kyuk. But Katara was still tight-lipped. She folded her arms in Kyuk's direction, then looked pointedly at YanShen.

"How about you, YanShen?" she demanded. "Feeling okay there with your neck on the line?"

YanShen had been in a daze for the whole meal. It was as if Feng's appearance had smothered a fire in him, and he'd gone gray and lifeless. Now the Governor was gone he was looking a little livelier. But when Katara confronted him, he barely spoke up, just held out his palms in a gesture of "hold on a sec!", with an embarrassed smile.

"Aren't you a little nervous? You could end up in one of those metal cages too."

"It doesn't matter how either of us feel" said Kyuk, "If Feng wants to arrest him, I can't stop him."

"That's not true. You can hide out until these strange happenings have stopped, and things calm down. Get out of the city. You don't need to take this lying down. "

"It's not that simple," insisted Kyuk. "If I hide him, Feng will know it was me. Threatening to arrest YanShen is not just a power play, it's a test: it's to check my loyalty."

"He's testing you with your own nephew?" whispered Aang. "That's sick."

"That's who he is," said Kyuk grimly. "Paranoid, superstitious, unpredictable... All in all, one koi short of a pond. But I've come too far to blow my cover now." He finally looked at YanShen. "Do you agree?"

YanShen bowed with lanky, nervous formality. "Yes, uncle."

"You don't have to accept that. Either of you." said Katara. She had turned her back on YanShen, to face Kyuk directly. "We should be protecting him! And what about the prisoners already up there? They're in serious danger up on that temple wall all night!"

"They'll be fine tonight. Trust me, Katara!"

"How can you know? Even if spirits aren't really eating people alive, we know there have been fires and collapsing buildings. YanShen, you said it was dangerous yourself. The least we can do is save those prisoners from the cages!"

"I can metal bend them open, no problem," said Toph, partly to explain to Kyuk, partly to throw her voice behind Katara. "We could bust them out without being seen easily."

"No!" cried Kyuk. He'd stood up from the railing. "I forbid it! Even if you aren't seen, the prisoners' disappearance will drive Feng crazy with paranoia. It'll destroy years of our Order's work, of my work!"

"How can we fight the Fire Nation by doing nothing and taking no risks!" retorted Katara. "Toph's right - we have the power to save them, why shouldn't we use it?"

"Oh really?" Kyuk's tone changed to a derisive sneer. Suddenly he looked fierce. " _You_ might be powerful enough. You and the Avatar. But not all of us have the luxury to attack everything head first and win. We have to be patient. We have to make sacrifices."

"You're sacrificing your own people!" said Katara, almost tearfully. "They're in metal cages right now and you won't even take a risk to help them. You're sacrificing your own nephew, you're putting us on the line too, even the Avatar, for your own mission!"

"We're all slready in those cages, Katara! Feng has put up iron bars and trapped us all!" Kyuk was shouting. "Look at _this_ , look at what he's done to us at a friendly meal. This mission isn't some abstract dream of mine, it's a way to help the Earth Settlers! Can't you see that?"

"Stop yelling!" shouted Sokka.

"This is pointless!" yelled Toph.

"You're right," interrupted Aang suddenly. He looked from Kyuk to Katara; both of them red in the face, almost tearful. For a moment he saw Kyuk as though he were just a kid, so full of spite at being misunderstood, at being intruded on and challenged; and Katara, so caring, so desperate to fight for the people around her.

With a leap he air bended himself on to the walkway beside Kyuk.

"Kyuk Jun" he said solemnly, "I'm sorry for our outburst. We have no right to interfere with your mission. I swear we'll stay out of the way. Avatar promise." He put his hand and fist together and bowed deeply. Then he beckoned the rest of the Gaang on to the walkway. "We all promise."

Unsure what was going on, Sokka and Toph came forward and bowed hesitantly.

"You too, Katara," said Aang authoritatively. "I know how you feel, I really do. But Kyu's on our side. Pian Dao said so. Grandma Sindu too. He wants to fight for us, I can feel it. We have to stand by him if we want to defeat the Fire Nation."

Katara folded her arms but under Aang's expectant grey eyes, paced on to the walkway. Reluctantly she too put palm to fist and bowed. Looking relieved, Kyuk bowed to the four of them in return.

"Well. I'm glad we've put that behind us." Kyuk sighed in relief, then looked at Aang." Thank you, Aang - what an Avatar you're turning out to be!" He turned to Katara. " I hope you won't think less of me now. I'm sure you know how hard it is for me not to run out and help my fellow citizens. But I'd rather their sacrifices weren't in vain, than all be for nothing because I was impatient."

"I know," said Katara miserably, "I get it. But there has to be another way."

"Especially when plan 'A' means dealing with Feng" Toph snorted.

"He might not be the worst of it." They were walking back to the ancestral hall now, Kyuk in the lead. "There's something else I need to show you children. And another story to tell, before we can finally get some rest."

Standing opposite the statue in the ancestral hall, Kyuk Jun leapt into an Earthbending stance.

As he whipped his hands through several moves, the statue began to slide noiselessly backwards, until it was almost against the far wall. Next he threw his hands down; the space which the statue had covered, made of loose stones, collapsed inwards with a thunderous roar. The echo of Kyuk's forbidden bending, off the walls and up into the vaults, at the statue Feng had prayed at, felt like an act of open rebellion; the Fire Nation heroes on the wall paintings seemed to hear it and heat up the air in anger. Where the statue had stood moments ago, the loose stones had shaped and coalesced into a stone staircase in the centre of the hall.

Kyuk descended the newly revealed staircase into a pitch-dark cave. The group followed after cautiously, only Toph moving with certainty.

Aang reached the bottom of the steps just as a flicker of light came into view - an incense stick, held by Kyuk He lit three more, putting them each into a tall bowl filled with ash - another altar. The sticks cast just enough light to make out the surroundings; a tomb carved out of the rock, wide,low and bare except for the wall behind the altar. Here hung a life-sized scroll painting, and beneath it a shelf of rock topped with a few simple ornaments; a pot of brown clay, a red agate spear-tip, a necklace of gold and green. Having placed his incense in the altar, Kyuk solemnly approached the painting, knelt, and bowed his head to the ground.

"This," he said, sitting up after a moment, "is one of the largest of my people's ancient tombs. There are many more, all hidden underground throughout HongTu. For many of us they are our only connection to the first Earth Settlers. My own past is here. My ancestors are buried beneath us, right up to the very first of my family - this man" He pointed to the painting. "Kyuk Qun. "

The painting, monochrome, in thick and bold brush strokes, showed not an old solemn official but a young, powerful man in hunting gear. His head was turned up to the sky. He held a spear in one arm, and five thick claws hung from a thread on his belt. At first glance he could have been compared to the ancestral statue above. But the eyes were different. The feeling was different. The terse brush strokes had movement, energy, personality. This wasn't just an icon. This painting was a faint voice, a faint shadow, of the real Kyuk Qun.

"Governor Feng may think he knows all about the Earth Settlers - who we are, where we live - but we've worked for 100 years to hide the existence of our burial sites from him and all the Fire Nation. Feng doesn't even know that I am descended from the Earth Kingdom settlers. All of our secrets - our Order, our tombs, my heritage - are connected. If he finds out about one, it's only a matter of time before he learns the truth about the others."

"Now you've seen for yourself that Feng's a hard man to predict. He's always loved keeping his 'loyal subjects' on their toes. But ever since these sightings started, he's been something else entirely." Kyuk Jun scratched his chin absently, lost in thought.

"He spends almost all his time praying in the temple; the rest of the time, he harasses and locks up the citizens almost at random. He interprets the smallest things as divine signs of who is evil and who is loyal. Even some of his old advisers have had a nasty shock. If he does have anything to do with these 'spirit' attacks - whatever they are - he's not acting like it."

A chill seemed to have passed through the tomb, which was now a black hole filled only by the three sparks of light from the incense sticks. Outside it was well and truly night; no more filtered down the stairs behind them. Aang glanced at Katara. In profile, her hair and eye glimmered in the tiny glow of the incense sticks, but she didn't turn to face him.

He looked again at the shadowy painting. Kyuk Qun stared back: stern, crow-like, austere, like he was hiding a secret he chose not to share.


	6. Sleepless Night

A vivid evening moon shone in through the Gaang's upstairs bedroom overlooking the Koi courtyard and the gate back on to the main road. In the middle distance, the pagodas of Hongtu Temple towered over the rooftops of the opposite street. It was quiet, almost serene. Only the shadows of the Fire Nation troops patrolling the streets outside hinted at the danger of the night.

"What came over you back there, Aang?" asked Katara. "I thought you were agreed with us before, then you were suddenly on Kyuk's side!"

"We're all on Kyuk's side," said Sokka.

"You know what I mean," Katara retorted, then sighed. "I know we shouldn't start trouble, but that doesn't mean we can't do anything for the Earth Settlers at all. "

"I feel that way too, Katara, really. But the thing is…" Aang hesitated, looking at her imploringly. "Last night Sindu told me that we might have the power to help someone but not the choice. Maybe this is what she meant. Maybe using our power right now isn't our choice to make."

Katara stared at him. "What the heck does that mean, Aang?"

"I don't know how else to explain it! I'm sorry. This just really feels like the right thing to do right now."

"I know you've always been a chicken for confrontation, but this does feel kinda like giving up," put in Toph. "You really think we should just lay back and let Kyuk do all the work?"

"Not all the work, just his own mission. And we do ours."

"And what's that?" said Sokka after a pause.

Aang made a knowing expression. "Our mission is Avatar stuff. I'm the Avatar, so it's down to me to find out what these hauntings are."

"And how will you do that without stepping on Kyuk's toes?"

"First, we'll go back to the ruined house from this morning. If we go back to where these things happened I bet there'll be some clues. If we just casually investigate, no one will notice anything weird."

"Yup, just four kids poking round a burnt-out spirit site. Nothing weird there."

"It's worth a try."

Sokka hesitated. "I guess."

"Great call twinkletoes!" said Toph. "looks like you get to do some detective work after all, Sokka!" she punched Sokka on the arm.

Sokka sighed. "So our plan is that Kyuk does the spying and the fancy feasting, and we're going to investigate loads of burnt ruins for a 'mysterious' fire starter, in the middle of the Fire Nation? Does this seem just a little bit unfair to anyone?"

"Wait!" Aang threw up a hand. "Toph… do you feel anyone moving around outside?"

"No," said Toph cautiously, "what's up?"

"Something feels weird…"

All of the Gaang had frozen still when they saw Aang's attention shift. With soundless steps, Aang rose and tiptoed to the window.

The Koi courtyard was beneath them. Under the gate leading from there to the Earth courtyard there stood was a shadow.

It was barely visible, just an upright shape barely lighter than the total blackness of the gate's threshold, unmoving, indistinct. Yet Aang knew instinctively that it was a living thing.

In the same instant, the shadow disappeared into the total dark of the threshold, and reappeared on the other side. It moved swiftly through the Earth courtyard.

"There!" Aang pointed. "Do you guys see it? Toph, can you feel him moving? He's at the outer gate!"

The other three had rushed to Aang's side.

"Toph?"

"Maybe it's too far," wondered Toph. "And we're on the first floor…"

"What did you see?" said Sokka.

"He's behind the wall on the street side now." Aang gritted his teeth. "He was watching us. I know it!"

He threw one leg up on to the windowsill, but Katara grabbed his arm.

"The sentries, Aang! They'll see you air bending!"

Aang knew she was right, but he didn't put his foot down from the ledge. He leaned out the window as far as he could and tried to squint over the wall adjoining the street, as well as the crossroads where Kyuk's compound ended. But the shadow never came back into sight.

It'd been a long day. But after the dinner with Feng, and Aang's sighting, there was no chance of getting much sleep. The four wooden doors on their wooden bed-closets closed, leaving them eachalone with their thoughts.

After only a few minutes, Sokka slid his door open again. He threw on an extra layer of nightclothes and groped his way downstairs, through the spotless dining area, shuddering as he passed the dinner table where Feng had sat a few hours ago. Turning from the main corridor, he went down the servant's aisle until he reached a small organising-room used by the servants, between the kitchens and dining area. No sooner had he stumbled into the room than the faint aroma of cooked meat and spicy sauces hit his nose, and his mouth started to water.

A lamp was sitting on a table against the wall, which Sokka hastily lit with a tinderbox lying beside it. The golden light fell on an array of clay pots in different shapes and sizes, some covered by carved lids, others with fluted necks open to the air, exuding their precious smells.

Sokka's tongue emerged of its own volition licked his lips noisily. His nose, with a mind of its own, was assessing each smell and selecting the best. Then his free hand gleefully, triumphantly, reached out to one of the covered lips and tipped it off. Slithers of pungently flavoured pork were packed among fragrant vegetables. His gleeful hand pulled out a slither, held it above his mouth, and lowered it in in one go.

A white shape appeared in his peripherals. He sucked the pork down in a rush, then erupted into a frantic coughing fit as it lodged in his throat.

Toph laughed. "What's on the menu, captain night-snacker?"

She was wearing a hugely oversized silk nightgown that hung around her feet in folds, but she didn't trip or stumble once as she walked up to the table. With each step she knew exactly where every fold was unfurling and every corner was dragging. Her hand emerged from a huge white sleeve, looking impossibly small, and snatched a pork slither from the pot. Sokka was about to laugh, but he had a sudden flashback to earlier that evening, when an older, bonier hand had materialised from amid the folds of black robes.

"Toph?" He hesitated. "So you didn't eat much at dinner either, right?."

"Nah." Toph chewed thoughtfully for a second. "I didn't feel like it."

"Me neither. I lost my appetite. It's weird - I don't think that's ever happened before."

Toph opened another pot: deep-fried green beans. They both ate greedily with their fingers for a minute or two.

"I can't believe you offered Governor Feng your new space sword," said Toph suddenly. "You actually tried to give it to him!"

Sokka stopped chewing, looking as indignant as is possible with a mouth stuffed with food. To his surprise, Toph seemed to register this expression somehow - maybe it was just how he stopped eating - and blushed. She said in a rush, "What I mean is, it was crazy and all… but thanks for trying."

Before Sokka could think how to answer, Toph was tucking in to the food again, and Sokka, relieved, went back to chewing.

Once they'd ransacked the clay pots, sleep started to feel more attainable. On the way back up the stairs, Toph paused.

"There's someone in the ancestral hall."

When they peeped round the corner, they saw Kyuk kneeling before the statue, which had reclaimed its former place in the centre of the hall after the tomb was re-closed.

"Looks like we're not the only one who couldn't sleep," Sokka whispered wryly.

Aang dreamed. It was a quiet, strangely present dream, and somehow cold; like a room seen through frosted glass.

He dreams. Something lingers outside the door of his bed-closet. The door opens.

Standing there is an enormous rat-crow, taller than him. It looks at Aang cocks its feathery head. "Time to go, Avatar."

"Go where?" asks Aang, but follows anyway. They open the bedroom door. It opens not on to the first floor but directly on to a huge courtyard that stretches into the distance. In the centre of the courtyard is the Cloud Pagoda.

They walk directly towards it. When they reach it, the rat-crow doesn't slow down. It lifts a clawed foot, steps on to the pagoda's side and starts to ascend horiontally, walking up the wall as casually as if it were a garden path. Aang, only a few steps behind, copies the rat-crow's example instinctively, and finds he too is walking up the pagoda's side.

Pretty soon they're a hundred feet high. They pause in their ascent and peer back down.

"Why didn't we take the stairs?" Aang asks. The rat-crow scoffs. "Like you ever take the stairs!"

They walk right to the top, passing through a thick layer of snowy clouds. The pagoda's spire sits a hundred feet above the clouds, which form a vast tundra below, a second ground. Aang can taste the unimaginable chill of the thin stratospheric air. The stars look close enough to touch. They could almost be in space, up here.

The clouds are moving - travelling with the wind. Small gaps appear. Aang glimpses, through one gap, Kyuk's house beneath them, so small and flat it could be a carved decoration on a jewellery box. But he finds that if he concentrates, he can still make out all the details - the ancestral hall, the koi pond, the Earth Courtyard - and each is distinct and clear.

"Were you the one spying on us this evening?" Aang asks absently.

"Don't be ridiculous, Avatar." The rat-crow scoffs again. "Do I look like a spy? I'm just a rodent. At best, I'm a bird."

"Good point." This logic sounds completely reasonable. "One ugly bird, too."

Something is stirring below. Just like the various facets of the house, each person is distinct and clear to Aang. He realises Toph and Sokka are awake and moving around. Then he senses Katara awake too. She leaves the bedroom and goes downstairs. Then he 'sees' her - small as a pinhead, but somehow clearly visible - in the koi courtyard; and is she looking _up_ at them?

"Katara!" he calls out.

"She can't hear you all the way up here," observes the rat-crow.

"Then I'm going down!"

The rat-crow shrugs. "It's a long way to fall."

When he woke up, sure enough Aang found Katara's bed-closet door was open. He rushed to the window, and there was Katara, by the zigzag bridge in the Koi courtyard. She was looking into the rippling pond, a thick blanket wrapped round her neck against the the wind.

"Katara!" without thinking Aang vaulted the window and floated lightly to the courtyard below.

"Aang?" Katara spun round in surprise. "You made me jump!"

"Sorry." He fought the urge not to run. Once he was by her side, though, he felt a little better - his heart had been beating fast. He looked intently into the sky for a moment. No clouds there, though, just white stars and the occasional humming insect. The immediacy and coldness of the dream was fading fast, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Katara hesitated, then put a hand on his arm. He reluctantly met her gaze.

"Aang, are you ok?"

"Me? I'm fine. Really! Just wanted some fresh air." Was this enough? "You know us air benders, Katara. Love us some air."

Katara's steady, mild eyes were still locked on his. Staring back guiltily, Aang found he could see the tiny lines around her mouth, on her cheek, that only showed up very rarely. But when they did he always noticed them. They expressed something like _dread_. It was too much. He averted his eyes and stared into the Koi pond.

Now and again a groggy koi would pop its mouth to the surface, a flash of white or gold or red, then dive again with a flick of its tail.

Katara said: "Aang, I know I said this before, but I'm sorry I got angry with Kyuk. I don't know why, but it bothered me somehow. It wasn't that you agreed with Kyuk in the end, it's just… I don't know Aang… the way you agreed with him. It was like something came over you. In one way you seemed so wise. But in another way - somehow…"

"Different?" Aang offered.

"Yeah. And then before bed tonight, you told us Grandma Sindu said something important to you that you hadn't shared with us before. I don't know if it's a big deal, but you didn't say it before…"

"I trust you, Katara. You know that. I trust you, and Sokka and Toph, more than anyone."

"I know." She sighed. "I know. I just can't find the words for what I want to say."

The night seemed very deep now, filled with the sound of the wind, and the shadows of the courtyard walls. Aang found his eyes drifting across the Koi Courtyard. They came to rest, by slow degrees, on the gate. The threshold was the darkest space of all. "I think I know what you're trying to say," Aang said softly. "It's strange, but now you say it out loud, I do feel different now. Here."

Katara followed his gaze with a look of worry. "Is it that thing you saw this evening?"

Aang shook his head "It's not just that. It's at least since…" he thought intently. "since we saw that burned out house."

The moment he said this he realised it was a lie - he could trace this feeling back even further, to the morning, when the rat-crow had peered over Katara while she slept, and hopped into the stone hut.

"What feeling is it, Aang?" Katara looked desperately concerned now.

"I don't know. It's so fleeting, I don't even think I can pinpoint it. It's being scared, feeling spied on. Maybe it's being here in the Fire Nation. Maybe it's being with other people we have to look out for, but can't. Does that make sense?"

"Kind of," said Katara uncertainly.

"But it's more than that. I don't know why Katara, but it's almost… not just fear." He hesitated, then blurted it out. "It feels kind of… _good_. Like something running in my veins. It's a bit like… it can't be, but… it's a little bit like being in the Avatar State."

"That doesn't make sense."

"I know. I can't explain." Aang was shuddering, and not just in the wind. He fixed his eyes on the black threshold of the gate and set his teeth, waiting for that feeling to appear from the shadows. Where had it gone? Where was it coming from?

But Katara had noticed it. He felt a sudden rush of gratitude, and said aloud, "thanks Katara," and forced himself to smile thinly. Of course Katara had noticed, he thought. Had he really expected her not to?

Trust them, Aang, he told himself. Trust her.

 **Thankyou to all my readers who have made it this far? If you've enjoyed it up to this point, it would be great to hear your thoughts!**


	7. A Fire Burned to Embers

"The name's Sokka," mumbled Sokka. "That's right, fellow citizen - I'm the double agent in this village - the number one boomerang - smooth as ice, cold as… Appa! don't-tell-the-Fire-Nation -"

"Wake up!" Toph's hand batted off his ear. Sokka jumped up in a fright. "The Fire Nation's invading! Wait Appa, don't say any more! - wait! - what? What's going on?"

Toph rushed back to the window ledge. Katara and Aang were already crowded round it.

"What's going on?" Sokka repeated, then leaped out of the open door of his bed-closet, rushed to the window and peered over Aang's head.

Squinting against the morning sun, he made out a phalanx of fully armoured Fire Nation troops, marching down the street adjoining the perimeter wall. The line of armour and mask-like helmets extended all the way round the corner of the compound. Whenever the phalanx passed a side street, a detachment would break off.

Toph rubbed her eyes. "At this time of the morning? What's up with these guys?"

"I guess Feng got up on the wrong side of the bed," said Aang.

"My guess is there was another fire last night." Sokka rubbed his chin. "This is gonna make Aang's spirit-detective plan more difficult."

Aang nodded thoughtfully. "I say we still try, as long as we're careful. Beats sitting around here. Besides, it's just a bunch of henchmen, and they don't know to look out for us. If it looks like there's going to be any trouble, we'll just play it safe and get out of there."

Sokka sighed. "Why do I feel like I've heard that one before?"

The sun already high in the sky by the time the Gaang had dressed, wolfed down some food, and made it across town. They arrive at a small crossroads not far west from the main street leading into the city. A small crowd was gathered around the burnt remains of a corner house. Just as before, the whole building had been charred black, down to its foundations; red roof-tiles and decimated furniture lay among the rubble. Apart from a few miraculous proofs of former life - a broken water jug, a child's toy, an old man's walking stick - It was hard to believe the black square on the ground had ever been a house.

"There's a cave underground," Toph said immediately. "An open space. Wanna bet it's one of those -"

"Earth settler tombs!" finished Aang. "I knew it! Now how can we get in there without drawing attention?"

They pulled themselves out of the crowd and huddled in a circle.

"Maybe a distraction?" Katara suggested. "We could make a mist cloud. Or a sandstorm."

Sokka rubbed his chin. " A mysterious fog straight over the ruin, with all the spooky stuff that's been happening? I think that's just going to make everyone even more paranoid." He snapped his fingers. "Wait a second! If this burnt out house has got a tomb, maybe all the others do! Maybe these are being targeted."

"We know that, dummy," said Toph indignantly. "Aang just said that."

"What I mean __is -__ if we're trying to get into one of the other tombs, why don't we retrace our steps and find one of the burnt-out houses from a few days ago? That'll probably be abandoned by now!"

"One underground cave or another, I guess." Toph looked at Aang. "What do you say, oh Great Bridge?"

"It's worth a shot," Aang said.

As they were retracing their steps, Aang spotted something across the junction from them. It was the travelling old cook with the bamboo frame who they'd seen yesterday. He was standing, or rather staggering, between two Fire Nation guards. Every time he tried to stand up, one of the guards would shove him back down, upsetting his whole bamboo contraption and causing him to teeter and wobble like a tower in an earthquake. The man's face was red with a bright, sweaty sheen; he looked from one guard to the other with the panic and humiliation of a bullied schoolkid. Every time he collapsed back into the dust, both guards roared with laughter.

Aang missed a step, then hurried on behind Katara, looking fixedly into the back of her head. She hadn't noticed. And Aang thought, __this is it. I'm not going to tell her.__

He wished he could tell whether Toph had heard too, because she'd kept quiet too and then he could at least comfort himself that a friend had made the same decision. If he'd heard the old man, she must have too. But, of course, she didn't try to glimpse over her shoulder, or catch Aang's eye. So there was no way to tell.

They were back at the ruin on the main street. The burning houses must have drawn crowds like battlefields draw looters - hasty, furtive, and filled with an instinct of retreat. As yesterday, there was no one around, and almost all the shops were closed and gloomy.

With a nod of acknowledgement to each other, Toph stepped into the ruins of the house and, in one swift movement, ripped up a hole in the ground. Aang and Katara leaped through the small hole, leaving Toph and Sokka on lookout.

They'd come prepared that morning with a wooden torch, but it was hardly necessary. The small hole Toph had created was enough to light the tiny tomb - a grotto of bare rock walls. One wall was decorated as a small altar. In place of the more sophisticated scroll painting at Kyuk's, here there was a small clay sculpture placed upon an altar table. Close by in one corner, a few pinpoints of light lasered into the tomb through some dislodged flagstones; obviously, these pinpoints marked the former entry point from the house above.

Aang and Katara took in all these details carefully, one by one. There was an unnaturally chill air in the tomb after the heat of the day above. Aang surveyed each of the shadows in the corners carefully, the dark figure from last night still at the front of his mind.

From her crossed arms, Aang guessed that Katara felt the same unease as him. She walked haltingly up to the alter, taking cautious steps like a person expecting to step on a trap. She picked up the small altar sculpture slowly, and instinctively, and somewhat reverently, looked it over, then put it back.

"Doesn't seem like there's anything here."

A sudden shiver raced up Aang's back. He said, "Not anymore. But something __was__ here. I'm sure of it."

"In that case, how did they get in? Toph just improvised our entrance, remember?"

"I don't know." He looked at the flagstones, then the pinpoints of light, and the listless altar.

"Well that was a waste of time!" Toph, having just eaten her weight in food, threw herself back on a divan in one of Kyuk's reception rooms.

They'd made it back to Kyuk's in the late afternoon because it looked futile to visit any more burned out wrecks while the city was filling up with Fire Nation uniforms. By that afternoon there were as more soldiers on the streets than the civilians, who cast nervous glances at each other underneath the pointed armour and helmets.

"It wasn't all bad," Katara put in. "At least we made it through a whole day without starting a fight with any Fire Nation Troops. That's got to be a record!"

Aang nodded agreement. He always dreaded a fight, but after seeing the traveling cook being bullied he'd been especially worried.

Toph had recovered enough appetite to start nibbling at the nuts in a bowl on the table; Sokka, sitting on a chair next to hers, absentmindedly joined in. "Where is Kyuk, anyway? He's not being that helpful with us about his 'important mission'."

"Maybe he could tell us something about where all these Fire Nation troops came from too," Katara suggested.

"You know what I think? We're wasting our time right now." Toph crunched the nut shell in her teeth. "Twinkletoes here should still be in training, not hanging round here with Kyuk and Governor bigmouth Feng."

Sokka nodded. "Toph's right. If we can't help stop Feng, or learn anything more about the Fire Nation, or stop these - ahem - 'hauntings' - then what's the point of us being here? We're no closer to doing any good than when arrived."

Aang rested his head on his chin in thought. "We did learn something though… at least, when we were in the tomb today, I __felt__ something. It was like a leftover energy… like a fire that's burnt out and left just the embers. It's connected to yesterday, to what I was telling Katara…"

But he stopped short, surprising himself, as he realised that having confided in Katara about the feeling he'd had from the moment they'd arrived - that low level hum of anxious, jumpy energy, almost like the Avatar State - he wasn't sure he could break it to Toph and Sokka yet. They looked cynical enough as it was.

Sokka had opened his mouth to make a cynical comment, but before he could start Toph sat up. "YanShen's back!" Sure enough, a few seconds later the reception room door swung open with a thud.

YanShen looked intensely worried, almost stunned. He looked around the room a few times, over the Gaang's heads, blinking rapidly.

"Hey, we're down here!" Sokka waved his arms around. YanShen blinked again, his eyes finally alighting on Sokka's arms. He looked intensely relieved as he took in Sokka and the rest of the Gaang, like someone who lost something months ago only to find it exactly where they thought they'd left it.

"It's great that you're here. I mean really great. What with all the Fire Nation troops out."

"Alright, just tell us. What's up?"

He licked his lips nervously. "Kyuk has told me we need to go to Grandma Sindu's. We need to… to open the tomb there."

"The tomb?" THey all said at once.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"It's our escape plan. Kyuk is going to evacuate everyone in the White Lotus tonight. All our informers." He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "Until now, we've never known the tomb's exact location. That's why we haven't opened it before. But now we have Toph!"

"You want me to dig it up for you?"

"That's right. We can just sneak up there, open the tomb, go over the details with Grandma Sindu, then sneak back in before nightfall."

The Gaang looked at each other, then nodded.

"Okay then. Let's go Team Avatar!"

YanShen threw up his hands. He seemed shocked that they'd actually accepted. "Wait a second! It's going to be dangerous. We could be captured."

"Hey, this isn't even close to the most insane thing we've done." Aang was whipping his shoes on. "Besides, I can't wait to see Appa again. It's been a whole day and a half!"

"Well, Aang, you shouldn't really come. Kyuk needs you here."

"Really? For what?"

"He didn't tell me. But he'll back soon for sure."

Katara's hands were on her hips. It was like she'd sensed something like this coming. "No way! We finally have something practical we can do to help and now you're telling Aang to just wait around?"

"I know it'll be something important! Just wait for a little bit, Aang." YanShen did look profoundly sorry. He'd blushed bright red.

It was hard to believe there'd be a master plan involving only him appearing in the next few hours, but then again he'd said he would trust Kyuk before. He couldn't go against it now. "Guess the reunion will have to wait, Momo." The lemur's ears drooped, and Aang tried gamely to pet them into perking up again.

"I'll stay too, Aang," said Katara. "We can at least do some water bending practice that way."

"Wait - I mean, are you sure? You might be seen?" YanShen looked like he was trying to channel Kyuk's authority, not to mention his voice, but it came out as a stutter. Katara just sighed.

They talked a bit more over the details, YanShen looking more overawed all the time. He would glance from Toph to Aang to Katara to Sokka like he was in the presence of a gang of teenage Gods; but as soon as any of them met his eye, he'd straighten with hands behind his back like a stern monk. Once they had the plan set - it really sounded quite simple - he rushed out, saying that they had a few ostrich-horses they could ride.

"He looks nervous," said Toph, only faintly mocking.

"His home town is under siege and his uncle's a double agent," said Sokka sarastically. "No wonder he's nervous, any normal person would be. We're the crazy ones around here!"

"Speak for yourself," said Toph sourly.

Once Toph and Sokka had gone Aang and Katara moved out to the Koi Courtyard for a little discreet water bending practice. They moved through a series of simple stances and techniques that were second nature to them now, and through the gentle push and flow of the water passing between him and Katara, Aang felt a degree of peace and connection coming over him. True, it still felt like they were being watched, and as dusk came on and the shadows lengthened this only worsened. But if he focussed his attention on Katara's movements - her hands, her shoulders, her neck - and her effortless control of the water, he could forget about the nagging feeling in his head and imagine it was just him and her.

When the sun was halfway behind the western hill side, engulfing Grandma Sindu's hut, Kyuk suddenly flung open the gate and strode into the Courtyard. His face was red, and there were rings under his eyes. He looked beaten down and flustered. He passed quickly over the zigzag bridge, waved to them, and launched into speaking without saying hello.

"Avatar! Katara! Has YanShen already gone out? Yes? That's excellent." He was breathing heavily, as though the zigzag bridge had tired him out. "Thank you for trusting me, Avatar."

"Hey, it was an Avatar promise," said Aang uncertainly.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't come with you today. I was called away by Governor Feng again. He's spent half the day at the temple praying. And the other half rounding up more 'sorcerers'."

"What did he want with you?" asked Katara.

"I organised the troops who have been garrisoned here."

"Thanks for that," said Katara curtly. "We noticed them."

"I had no choice. Feng has got extra reason to put on a show of force after the fire, and I can't exactly pretend to disagree, can I? He's made more arrests, too. And… there are more prisoners from yesterday, in cages."

"They must be in really bad shape," said Katara quietly.

"I couldn't get a good look. But they're still hanging on." He considered this phrasing for a moment. "I mean, they're surviving. I'm sure about that."

A terse silence descended, then Kyuk asked what they had discovered during the day. Aang hesitated, then launched into describing what they'd learned at the Earth Settler tombs, the feeling he'd had like embers after a fire. He thought about mentioning the Fire Nation troops and the old cook too, but after a sheepish glance at Katara - her lips tightly pursed - he decided to omit it.

"You were lucky to get in that tomb when you did," said Kyuk. "All the new fire sites will be swarming with Fire Nation troops from dawn to dusk."

"New fire sites? Are you sure there'll be more?"

Kyuk seemed a little taken aback by this question. "I assume so. Why would they stop? Besides," his voice evened out - the dispassionate, fearless voice they'd heard him use with Feng. "Besides, there's something else. The reason this is all happening now, with the troops. Governor Feng received a message yesterday from Fire Lord Ozai himself. The Fire Lord is visiting him here, in only two days."

Aang gasped; a shot of ice had frozen his veins. "In two days? The actual Fire Lord?"

"That's right."

"How did you find this out?"

"I'm a double agent, remember?" said Kyuk grimly. "The important thing now is to prepare. Feng is getting his best servants new uniforms and filling his house with new furniture, but he's also determined to crush the Earth Settlers in Hongtu before Ozai arrives. He calls us the 'dissidents' and the 'sorcerers - you heard all that yesterday at Temple Square - , but he means __us,__ all Earth Settlers."

"Does he know where to find you? All the contacts and spies you mentioned? What about YanShen?"

"I don't know how much he knows, but it's not safe for them to stay anymore."

"And what about me?" said Aang quietly. "Why did you ask me to stay behind?"

Kyuk paused for a moment, tapping his fingers. Then he went on, "Governor Feng will use the hauntings and the spirit sightings as fuel to stoke his crazy witch-hunt, and justify it to Ozai. We need to get to the bottom of it before the Fire Lord arrives. Only you can do that, Avatar."

Something was hanging between them; something unspoken. Katara looked from Aang to Kyuk. "This is too much of a coincidence. Sokka must have been right: this has got nothing to do with spirits, it's all a game by Governor Feng!"

Aang turned to her and shook his head solemnly. "No, Katara. Grandma Sindu was right: something has been unleashed. After today I'm sure of it. It might be Feng behind it, but it's not just a few of his goons setting fire to stuff. And it needs to be stopped."

"And before Fire Lord Ozai arrives?" asked Katara softly. "Will it really make a difference?"

"I don't know if it'll save Hongtu," Aang said. "I just know it needs to be stopped now! We can't let it grow more powerful one day longer than we have to."

Aang felt his voice rising; Katara's expression tightened, and he suddenly realised he was almost glaring at her. His face softened, but before he had time to say another word, Kyuk had already turned to him,and his eyes glittered. "Are you sure about this, Avatar Aang? It's a bold plan, to ignore the Fire Lord himself and chase after a spirit."

Aang looked apologetically at Katara, turned back to Kyuk. "I'm sure."

Kyuk exhaled deeply. It was like a great decision had been lifted off of him. "I'm glad that you believe it, Aang. There's hope for us yet." He stood. "You said that you felt before as though you'd come across a burnt out fire with just the embers left - I think I can find you a roaring fire."

"How?" asked Katara and Aang together.

"Aang is the Bridge between Our world and the Spirit World. You've tried looking for the spirit in Our World, but you're always a step behind. It's the spirit world you need to be searching in."

"But I can't just enter and leave it like that." Aang frowned. "Even after training with Guru Pathik... it's only sometimes. And only some places too."

Kyuk smiled with a quiet confidence. "Don't worry about the place. We're sitting on it."

Aang raised an eyebrow. "You mean your ancestor tomb?"

"That's right - it'll be different this time. Let's go, Avatar - you'll find what you're after there, I'm sure of it."

With thunderous noise Kyuk opened the tomb. The Fire Nation heroes on the wall paintings looked on jealously, and as the grating intensified Aang felt a sudden irrational fear that these paintings would come to life and attack them.

When it was open, they stepped forward to descend the steps, but Kyuk put up one hand.

"Katara - I know you hate this, but let the Avatar go alone here."

Katara glared at Kyuk. "Is it safe?"

Aang desperately wanted to reach out and grab her hand to reassure her, but the sense of impatience in the hall was cloying. Something was waiting now. "I think Kyuk's right, Katara - I'll be okay. Trust me."

Katara bit her lip with anger, but held back as Aang and Kyuk descended. Aang kept looking over his shoulder until she was out of sight, praying for her expression to change, to soften just a little.

This time Kyuk lit only a single incense stick - one small spark glowed in the whole tomb. He and Aang stood underneath it, and despite the gloom Aang realised this was the first time he'd got a proper, close-up look at Kyuk Jun, the man Pian Dao had sent them to. He had a solid, heavy brow and powerful light eyes, but he also looked strangely old. It was different to Pian Dao, or Jeong Jeong, or even the centenarian friend Bumi. It was a face beaten down by world-weariness and isolation.

Kyuk's eyes were shut, and Aang realised he was praying. His clasped hands were raised to the scroll painting of his ancestor, Kyuk Qun.

"Avatar, I want to apologise to you." He didn't open his eyes. "It galls me that I couldn't fight with you at Ba Sing Se. I've wanted to join your side from the moment I heard about your return. But instead it's taken over a year for me to express my commitment to you - to the Avatar, the Four Elements, to everything we stand for. Now - isn't this strange? - after all my years of sacrifice, all the hours of cosying up to that madman Governor Feng just to get to this point, FireLord Ozai delivers himself to me on a platter, _ _just as you arrive__. This is a sign, Avatar. It's a gift."

"Kyuk, I'm not ready to face the Fire Lord," said Aang slowly. "I haven't mastered all four elements. I can't defeat him."

Kyuk sighed. "Whether you can or can't is your call, Avatar. But this is the opportunity of a generation. We have to make of it what we can." He straightened. "First, we find the spirit. Good luck, Aang."

Kyuk swivelled on his heel, leaving Aang standing at the altar alone. The only sound was Kyuk's steps, one by one, up the stone steps. . Then the thunderous grating from above began, but in the tomb the sound was was surprisingly muffled, like a distant echo. The light from the stairway closed, and closed, until it was a tiny slit, then vanished. In almost the same moment, the incense stick ran out, the only light dissolving into ash, and Aang was plunged into darkness.


	8. The Secret Tomb

The incense burned out and the stairs ground shut, enveloping Aang in darkness. For a few seconds, the imprint of the flimsy incense stick, and the brown shape of the portrait, remained inked on to his irises. Then these too faded.

It was a darkness so deep and complete that it was disembodying. All perspective, all scale, disappeared; he could have been encased a tiny cell, or floating in space. In the midst of this darkness that sense of being watched, which had followed him since the moment they stepped foot in HongTu, hit him with full force, freezing him to the spot. The isolation, the helplessness, was overwhelming. First he thought of himself, then he thought of Katara, trapped outside, a universe away, and his breath caught in rising panic.

He closed his eyes. _Think_ , he told himself. _Kyuk locked you down here for a reason._ Summoning every ounce of concentration he had learned with Guru Pathik, Aang reached out with his mind to each of the teachers, guides and father-figures who had led him so far. First, his eyes still closed, he called Roku to mind; his last reincarnation was silent, but the image of Roku's gentle eyes was comforting. Next, he pictured those who were still alive - all the people who had helped him and instructed him since he'd emerged from his stasis. There was King Bumi, his oldest friend, who'd lived on somehow to see him again. There was Jeong Jeong, Guru Pathik, Master Pakku, and more recently they'd even found allies here, on this hostile island: Pian Dao, Grandma Sindu - even Kyuk Jun himself. Could there really have been so many? Feeling relieved, his mind jumped happily to his most important teachers of all, his friends.

He pictured each of them in turn, calling to them, asking for their advice and guidance. When he came to Toph, it struck him that this boundless, never-ending darkness was her whole life. To her it wasn't terrifying or supernatural. It had nothing to do with the Spirit World. It was just everyday life, and she'd learned step by step to navigate it. She'd learned to 'see' what she needed to. With this thought firmly in mind, Aang slowly opened his eyes.

In the mountainous darkness surrounding him, there hovered glimmering yellow points that seemed to throw off no light. Each tiny fire, no bigger to Aang's eyes than a mote of dust, was a self-contained unit, illuminating only itself. They hovered in front of his eyes, teetering, fragile; if he moved his head they shuddered and lost focus. But as he concentrated, they grew distinct, more individual and clearly oriented. Some glimmered brighter, some very dim. And they weren't just in front of his face, but all around him at different depths and distances. And they communicated, it seemed, in subtle patterns.

By focussing all his attention on a small group of the fires, Aang found he could gradually tease out their relationship to each other: How far apart they were, how big or small, and most of all how the passing of living energy, _Qi,_ around and through them caused them to glow and shudder. Light by light, Aang slowly came to understand. He was looking at a map. A map of ancient and revered places, all connected by an energy still living and powerful. It was a map of the Earth Settler tombs.

At the same moment he realised this, one distant point suddenly lit up with an intense white glow. For a second it was resplendent; then it went red and angry and sinister, a bead of blood hanging in limbo. Aang's breath caught; the feeling around this point was so familiar, so unmistakable to him that he knew immediately he was looking at Grandma Sindu's house: Toph and Sokka were there, and they'd opened the tomb.

What was the meaning of this?

He paused. It vaguely occurred to him that he was sitting in the lotus position; whether he'd been there a few minutes or a few hours he wasn't sure. But it didn't bother him at that moment. He stared at the bead of hanging blood. _What's happened? Toph, what have you unleashed in that tomb?_

He wondered if the red bead meant there would soon be a fire there, if this was the sign they were looking for; but he quickly discarded this idea. In this limbo-like state he knew he had to be guided by intuition. Wherever the fire was coming, he should be able to feel it. He looked around eagerly from point to point for some flicker or change that would give him this clue, this feeling. But look as Aang might, nothing came to him.

Toph, Sokka and YanShen had made the uneasy journey by ostrich-horse in good time, threading past patrol after patrol of Fire Nation troops. Each patrol looked them over with harsh stares, obviously recognising YanShen in the fading light. He'd said that being Kyuk Jun's nephew made it easier - he was a relative of one of the city's most famous administrators, after all. But it drew all eyes on them.

It was worst going through the gate. Sokka tried to take a deep breath as they passed between the guards, but he was constricted by Toph's vice-like grip round his waist. She wasn't enjoying her introduction to ostrich-horse riding. When the gate was behind them, they broke into a light trot, causing Toph to grip him even tighter. Sokka grated around in the saddle and looked back at the guards. They were talking to each other, one leaning forward in a conspiratorial whisper. The other glanced back at them, meeting Sokka's gaze across the lengthening gap between them. But they didn't make any move to leave their posts.

"Toph, did you hear anything?" he whispered.

"Yeah," she groaned. "My stomach turning."

Although Grandma Sindu's wasn't really far, it was already dark when they got there. Sindu came out to meet them. She was leaning on a stick.

Toph leaped gleefully off the the ostrich-horse's back and rushed up to meet her. "How's earth bending, grandma?"

Sindu smiled wanly in return, seemingly forgetting that Toph couldn't see it.

After a joyous reunion with Appa, YanShen managed to drag them away and set them on the trail of the Earth Settler tomb. Toph took the lead. She led them in slow steps along the path up the valley-side, with the stream running parallel to them. YanShen rushed up beside her, following eagerly. Every few steps he would get carried away and end up in front of Toph, who would angrily shoo him out of her way as she went about her careful search.

"There's something I remember from around here. It didn't mean anything when I felt it at the time. I guessed it was just a cave." She was going slower now, ambling away from the path and towards the stream. The warm lights inside the Stone Hut looked like a distant sanctuary.

Sokka and Sindu were some way behind, going at Sindu's slow pace. Every few steps, Sokka would glance nervously up the road, then back towards the city.

"No need to look out for guards," said Grandma Sindu suddenly. "It won't help. Something is being unleashed within. Something you can't see with your eyes, whether night or day."

Sokka raised an eyebrow, half in surprise, half in scepticism. It was only then that he registered how laboured her steps were, and how hard she leaned on her stick. "Grandma Sindu? You look… sick…"

Sindu nodded slowly. "I was afraid of this…" she looked stubbornly ahead of her, all her effort going into walking. "Someone knows more than they dare say aloud."

"Someone? Who?"

She looked at him darkly. "Someone among us."

"This is it!" Toph's crisp voice came through the darkness.

They'd reached rockier ground where the stream strayed from the path. Here the stream tumbled over a steeper incline, forming a miniature rapids small enough to step over. Without hesitation Toph set to work on a small clump of creepers and vines weeds that had built up around a fallen log, just beside the stream. She went quickly, dragging up the vegetation with her bare hands, and had almost cleared it by the time YanShen and Sokka had made it over to help. Together they wrapped their arms under the log and heaved it out of the way. Then Toph raised her muddy hands in an Earth bending stance. In time with her movements, mud and rock where the log had been began falling into a depression in the earth. Before long the Earth Settler tomb was open.

Whilst he was still searching, peering with his mind's eye into every dim mote of light, Aang became aware of a presence around him in the cave. For some reason, it reminded him of the monks back on the Southern Air Temple - nasty, spiteful memories that he'd almost forgotten. It was the same feeling as when a jealous or a vengeful monk, angry with Aang for some invented reason, would spy on him as he strolled the grounds; peeping maliciously through windows, glancing over his shoulder, muttering to his walking companion. Aang had noticed this, and it was one of the first proofs of the impending isolation and otherness that he would have to bear as the Avatar. He felt this same spied-on isolation now; the unshakable unease of a witness pointing and laughing.

Two green-flecked eyes, rodent-like and large, were hovering in the space amid the flecks of light. Aang stared into them. At first they were disembodied, hanging in mid-air, but the cave was brightening a little with an ever-so dim light, surrounding them like a yellow mist.

"Are you really - yes? you are. You're the crow-rat, from my dream."

By way of answer the rat-crow stepped forward, on pink, clawed feet. It was smiling congenially, the damp yellow light illuminating the giant rat-crow's black fur and bunched wings. Aang didn't move, but he felt his muscles tense.

"What is this place?"

"This 'place'?" Its voice was uncannily like in his dream. "This isn't really a place, so much as a perspective. You could say it's an Avatar's eye view of the spirit world. Or if you want to look at the other way, a spirit's eye view of yours."

"Are you really a crow-rat?"

The rat-crow smiled, revealing rows of pointed fangs in its impish beak. "This too is just your Avatar's eye view. A spirit can take many forms, in its own place; but you're not fully in the spirit world yet. What are you looking for?"

"I'm not sure," said Aang falteringly. "Kyuk Jun said this would help. I know what I'm looking at, but I don't know how to use it to predict anything. I can only see what's happening now."

"You need to see the energy behind these points. The activity."

Aang hesitated. "I did something like this once before. It was in a swamp in the Earth Kingdom. But it was so much easier then."

"Of course. That's because there's life in a tree," said the rat-crow evenly. "It's harder to trace the timeless energy of the very veins of the Earth - and harder still to navigate the Spirit World."

"Can I trust you?"

The rat-crow shrugged. "You need to stop the fires. At this point I'd say it's either me, or Fire Lord Ozai."

"Are you with Governor Feng? Have you been starting the fires?"

"Governor Feng? Do I look like an answer to prayers?" The rat-crow just smiled again, eyes filled with the malicious glee of holding something back. "If you can bring yourself to trust me, then follow my sign, Avatar."

The pinpoint lights flickered, and went out.

"Toph, my dear," she said weakly. "Where's your bracelet? You didn't lose it in the stream just now, did you?"

Toph's face soured, and she turned her face away instinctively to hide her hurt. "Governor bigmouth took it as a 'gift'."

At that moment Sindu's stick fell from her hand, clopping against a rock. Her throat seized up, and she bent double, then sunk to her knees. Her whole body shook violently.

YanShen rushed to her side in horror, grabbing her under the arms and trying to support her. But Sindu looked straight over his shoulder at Toph and Sokka, her eyes wild. "What have you done, Pian Dao?! _What have you unleashed_?"


End file.
